You'd Be M'lady
by AryRiddle
Summary: "I told you once" Gendry said. "You would never be my family. You'd be m'lady." Arya was furious. "And, as your lady, you would do anything I commanded?" "Yes, m'lady." "Fine. I command you to be my family!" /A "The Crime of Love" SPIN-OFF!
1. Chapter 1

**I own nothing! All characters belong to George RR Martin.**

**Well, this is my second fic, and I want to dedicate it to _crushnotsosecret, _who gave me the idea for this one by saying that she would like to know more of Arya's story in the other fic. ^^ I hope you like it!**

**This fanfic is a SPIN-OFF of my SanSan fic "The Crime of Love", so those who haven't read it might want to do that before? This fic contains a bit of spoilers from the other fic. It centers about Arya's life in the period of time covered between part 2 and 3 of the other fic, which was not deeply described.**

**The first chapter in this story happens after chapter 16 in the other one. Oh, and it's based on events of the show.**

**ENJOY!**

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It was the biggest feast that had been held in Winterfell in a very long time, and hundreds of northeners were happily eating, drinking, singing and dancing, celebrating the return of the Starks to the reconstructed seat of their family. They were celebrating that they had a new liege lord, Bran Stark, who sat on the principal chair in the largest table with his direwolf Summer by his side. At his right, in the place of honor, was sitting his sister, the beautiful Lady Sansa Stark, who was dressed in a beautiful white laced gown, and her shoulders were covered by a yellow cloak with three black dogs on it. For there was a second thing being celebrated that night at Winterfell: Lady Sansa's marriage to Sandor Clegane.

It was the second time that Sansa was married to a Clegane, but contrary to the first time, right now she couldn't have been happier. She was glowing, and her husband was sitting by her side, with the good side of his face facing her. The northeners, instead of hating him like they had done in the past, now liked him. They all knew of how he had sailed across the Narrow Sea all the way to Slaver's Bay to convince the Dragon Queen to return to Westeros, and succeeded; how he had fought valiantly in King's Landing against the Lannisters, and won; how he had returned Lady Sansa and Lady Arya safely to the North. Yes, now they all knew that he was a good, decent man. What some of them didn't like, though, was that he had fathered Sansa's bastard son while he was still the King's dog, and she was still betrothed to that same King, Joffrey Baratheon. But that didn't matter now. The child had died upon being born… or so had they been made to believe.

Arya Stark was enjoying the feast from her seat besides Rickon, who was sitting at Bran's left. Before going to King's Landing, she always amused herself by throwing food to her sister, but she wasn't going to do that now. She didn't want to spoil her sister's especial day, Sansa deserved to be perfectly happy after so much suffering… And Arya was starting to like the Hound. Perhaps he wasn't such a bad option for a goodbrother after all. Arya stoop up from her chair and walked towards the newly weds. Sansa smiled broadly when she saw her sister approaching her.

"Arya!" They gave each other a big, tight hug.

"I'm happy that you are happy" Arya said, and she really meant it. Then she stared sharply at Sandor. "I'm warning you. If you ever hurt my sister, I'll make sure that you end up being uglier than you already are."

Sansa's mouth fell wide open in shock.

"Arya!" she exclaimed for the second time that night, this time scolding her sister. Sandor, on the other hand, smirked.

"And I'm warning you too, she-wolf. If you ever walk in on us, I'll kick you in that bony ass of yours, understood?" before he even finished the threat, Arya had an awful look of disgust on her face.

"Seven hells!" she exclaimed, making both Sansa and Sandor laugh, which annoyed her. "It's not funny, it's _disgusting_! Yuck!"

"Aye, you're saying that now" Sandor kept saying, still smirking. "But wait and see if you keep looking so disgusted when you find someone that rings your bells for you… _Oi_!" Sansa had smacked him on his broad chest, covered only by a yellow velvet doublet. "What was that for, little bird?!"

"Language!" was all she said, but she started laughing after a few seconds. Sandor grinned and leaned in to kiss her.

"_Yuck_!" Arya ran away from then and ack to her chair as fast as she could. Apart from being a bit disgusted, she was red from embarrassment, and she didn't know why. She was so upset from those unknown reasons that she didn't notice Jon staring at her with an amused smile on his face. He was sitting in the Stark tale as the guest of honor, not because he was their astard brother, because he wasn't. He was their cousin, Jon Targaryen. He wasn't a member of the Night's Watch anymore: as they only living relative of Queen Daenerys Stormborn, and given that she was barren, he was the only heir of the Targaryen dynasty, so he had been relieved from his duties, and he had been made Lord of Dragonstone. Besides, he had also been free to marry the former wildling Ygritte. The girl had adapted incredibly well to life on that side of the Wall, and though she was a little wild spirit, she was learning how to become a lady. A warrior and a bit inappropriate lady, but still a lady.

"What's with that dace?" Jon asked Arya, and then he saw that Sandor and Sansa were still kissing. He quickly figured out that that was the reason why Arya looked like she was aout to throw up, and that seemed to amuse him. He laughed, which annoyed Arya even further. "Really? After all the times that you've seen them like that, it still bothers you?"

"Doesn't it bother you?"

"I'm married, Arya! I do that all the time!" Jon exclaimed, and Arya made a face.

"Yes, but you are not married to the Hound, you don't kiss _him_, right?"

It was Jon's turn to make a face, and he turned green. "_Oh, gods_!"

Ygritte laughed, and Arya smirked.

They saw how Sandor and Sansa stood up from the table to go to dance… or better said, how Sansa _dragged_ Sandor with her to go to the dance. Jon poked Arya in the shoulder, and next thing she knew, she was on her feet being forced by her brother (_cousin_!) to dance. She tried to get away, but he didn't allow it.

"Come here Arya! You have to dance with me!" he laughed.

"No I don't!"

"Yes you do! What? You don't want to dance with me?"

"No, I don't!"

"Now I'm hurt" Jon said, even though he was still laughing. He finally let go of the girl and he went to pick up his wife, who squealed (squealed? Ygritte _squealing_? Bloody hells, she needed to spend less time with Sansa!) and they went off to dance.

The son of some lord went to ask Arya to dance, but all he got was a glare from her.

"Don't even think about it" she said, and the boy backed off. Well, he wasn't exactly a boy… He was an attractive young man of about ten and five, or ten and six. That only made Arya frown, since when did she get the attention of attractive young men?!

She didn't realize that she had started to change. She was ten and four (she had been ten and three when they returned to Westeros, and the rebuilding of Winterfell had taken an entire year at a really fast pace and with a lot of help) and she was much taller than she had been before. Her hair was long, and clean, and it wasn't as messy as before. At that moment, it was loose and curly. Her face was pretty, her features a bit sharper though her face was still a bit round, her lips were full and her eyes were big and grey and beautiful. Even her body was changing, becoming more… curvy. She didn't pay much attention to these changes, but it appeared that men and boys did.

The dancing was suddenly interrupted when Bran asked for silence, and they all looked at him. He had an announcement to make. Sandor seemed to know already what his goodbrother wanted to say.

"_Don't you dare_…!"

Bran didn't listen to him.

"Time for the bedding!"

The northmen roared and raised their cups, and all of a sudden, Sansa was in the air, lifted by the hands of the same northmen that had roared before. She was laughing and squealing, and she let them carry out of the room towards the stairs while they got her ready for her husband. Sandor couldn't move, suddenly finding himself surrounded by women that were trying to take his clothes off and lead him to the stairs too. His protests were silenced by the happy exclamations of the women. Arya saw that Ygritte joined them, and soon after they made Sandor get out of the room to walk him to his chambers for his wedding night.

Arya had stayed behind watching, and even though she didn't want to, she laughed. How couldn't she, when she saw the Hound being overpowered by a bunch of northern women? After she finally stopped laughing, and the women and men started returning (which meant that Sandor and Sansa were probably destroying their bed chambers at that very moment) she felt bored. She couldn't go to her own chambers, because they were right next to Sandor and Sansa's and she didn't want to hear anything of what was going on there. She would have gone out for a ride, perhaps, if it hadn't been pouring for hours, and it wasn't likely that it would stop anytime soon.

That was going to be a very long night…

She had just sat back down again on her chair, and she was drinking wine from her cup, when she saw the guards coming into the great hall. One of the guards looked at Bran, who hadn't moved from his place the entire time.

"My lord" the man bowed before continuing to speak. "A man arrived, my lord. He says he knows Lady Arya."

Arya frowned again, and she stopped drinking, though her lips were still on the cup. That's when she saw that there was a man with them, dressed as a commoner and soaking wet. He was looking down, so she could only see his black hair. He was tall, and strong. Did she know him? How?

"Who are you?" Bran asked, and the man raised his head to look ahead to the two Starks.

Arya dropped her cup, spilling wine everywhere. Luckily, no drops feel on her, but she didn't care anyways. She could only look at those blue eyes who elonged to the person whom she believed dead since years ago. everyone looked at her when she cried:

"**_Gendry!"_**

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**I hope you liked it!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello! Sorry for the delay in updating, it's been the same with both my stories. Summer + bad internet cnnection is NOT a good combination!**

**Thank you to all of you who reviewed, favorited and followed! Here's a new chapter!**

**Enjoy!**

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Arya stared at Gendry in complete confusion. The bull-headed boy that she had once known, tall and muscular with black of hair and blue eyes had grown to be a fierce looking young man, and much more muscular than before. He wasn't as tall, strong and fierce as the Hound, clearly, but only because that was almost impossible. Gendry's hair had grown a little bit, almost covering his eyes, that were the same blue that Arya remembered.

Everybody had stared at her when she had almost screamed the boy's name, and were looking at her in confussion, specially her brother and Jon. She paid no attention to anyone except Gendry, who was staring at her with a faint smile on his face.

"Arya" he whispered again, and she could hear the happiness and relief in his voice.

"Who are you, Ser?" Bran asked.

"I'm no Ser, m'lord" Gendry replied, lowering his head a little bit. "I'm just a bastard from Flea Bottom, and apprentice armorer. My name is Gendry."

Bran frowned, and so did some of the men that were still in the room.

"And how did you come to know my sister, Gendry?"

"Bran, he was going to the Wall too when I escaped King's Landing" Arya explained, tired of her brother's questioning. "He was with me at Harrenhal too. He's my friend."

Bran said nothing in reply, he just stared at both his sister and the bastard, and Arya looked back at Gendry again. She felt a stinging in her eyes. Where those tears? She fought them back, she never cried.

"I thought you were dead" she said in disbelief, but Gendry shook his head.

"I thought the same of you… M'lady" after he said that last word.

It somehow pained Arya that Gendry called her like that exactly at that moment, because it reminded her of a cruel reality. He was a bastard and a blacksmith, and she was a Lady of Winterfell. They could not be friends like they used to be, they would not be allowed. All because it was _not proper_. Arya scoffed at the thought, not caring who was looking and who wasn't. And it also pained her because she remembered the last few times that she had been with Gendry. He abandoned her.

_He was my friend, and he left me. _She thought spitefully. _He preferred to be with those outlaws that sold him to that woman. _

She remembered the Red Witch now, and how she had taken Gendry away. That's why Arya had thought he was dead.

She said nothing else, and it was her brother who spoke.

"I'm sure you must be tired. Have you travelled from afar?"

"All the way from Dorne, m'lord. When I escaped Dragonstone I sailed to King's Landing, and Dorne seemed to be the safest place to be during the war. Then I travelled the whole South on a horse, and when the poor beast died I had to travel all the way here from the Neck on foot."

"Then you must be tired indeed. Seeing that you are a… friend… of my sister, you are invited to stay here at Winterfell for as long as you please. You say you are a blacksmith? You will have a job as well" Bran said. Gendry's face allowed everyone to see that he was thankful for that. "But I'm afraid that tonight all the rooms are full with our guests. Surely one of the maids will be able to find a place for you to spend the night…"

"There's an empty room in the tower" Arya quickly intervened, practically without thinking. Before her brother said anything, she started walking towards the door to get out of the Great Hall. She gestured for Gendry to go with her, and the lad bowed his head with respect to excuse himself away from the Lord of Winterfell's presence.

He followed Arya in silence through the stairs and the hallways. Away from the noises made by all the drunk men in the Great Hall, the thunder from the storm outside could be heard within the walls of the castle. When they passed next to a window, Arya could see how the rain was falling, so furiously that she could almost see nothing through it. No wonder that Gendry was so soaked. The lad had his arms around himself, trying to keep himself warm inside those wet clothes, but he was freezing cold. Arya was quick to deliver him to the empty bedroom that she had mentioned before. The door was unlocked and they stepped inside.

"You have everything you need here" she said. She was trying to avoid his gaze, and he noticed. Arya was uncomfortable, and she wasn't sure why.

"You've changed a lot" Gendry dared to say then. Arya tried to see if there was some kind of mockery behind his voice, but she found none. She finally raised her head, and her eyes met Gendry's, which where boring into her. "You're… taller. And your hair is longer. You really look like a girl now."

Arya scoffed, but before she could say anything Gendry added:

"A very, very pretty girl."

She blushed against her will. She thanked the gods that it was dark and he couldn't notice, and she felt stupid for it. Most girls blushed, and most girls were idiots. She had always thought so.

"You have changed too" she said, and Gendry raised his eyebrows.

"Really? How?"

"Before, you were a stupid bull-headed boy" she said, and she smiled. "Now you are a stupid bull-headed man."

Gendry laughed, and thunder stroke in the sky, lighting the room. Gendry felt cold again, and he shivered.

"Wait, I'll go and fetch you some clothes" she said, leaving the room and Gendry alone in it.

She walked down the corridor, passing quickly in front of one of the chambers with the locked doors. They were her sister's and Sandor's chambers, and that was their wedding night. Arya covered her ears right after she started hearing moans coming out of that room.

_Gross!_

She forgot about it quickly enough. As long as the newlywed couple wasn't too loud, things should be fine. Arya returned with a set of dry and clean clothes for Gendry. Because she was holding the pile of clothes, she wasn't ale to cover her ears these time, and she realized horrified that the moans and grunts and other gross sounds were louder than before.

_Seven hells! _She practically ran away from that part of the corridor until she reached the chambers in which she had left Gendry waiting for her, and she wa horrified that her room was right next to the couple's chambers. That was going to be an awful night for her and everyone staying in that tower.

Gendry smiled at her, unaware of what was going on, and she handed him the clothes.

"These should fit you."

He unfolded the pair of brown breeches and nodded.

"Aye, they are fine. Thank you very much, Arya."

"You're welcome…" she whispered. Gendry walked to the back of the room and took off his tunic, leaving his chest bare. Arya found herself staring at his hard muscles in awe. She wanted to touch them, feel them under Gendry's smooth skin…

She quickly shook her head to send those thoughts away. What the hell was wrong with her!

Gendry turned his head and caught her staring, and she felt embarrassed.

"Why did the witch take you away?" she quickly asked, before Gendry could make any sarcastic comment or remark.

Gendry sighed. Clearly, he didn't have very good memories of those days. She put on a new, dry and clean tunic before replying.

"Magic" was all he said. Arya frowned.

"Magic? Why would she want you to make magic, you are not a warlock or anything."

"No, but… she wanted king's blood, so she got it."

That made even less sense than before.

"_King's blood_?" she repeated.

Gendry opened his mouth, and he looked like he was about to explain it all to her when he felt silent, because Sansa had started screaming at the other end of the corridor, and she could be heard everywhere. Even Sandor's grunts of pleasure could be heard. Arya felt her face turning a dark red color, her cheeks were burning, while Gendry looked alarmed at the door and then at Arya.

"It's my sister's wedding night" she quietly explained, and Gendry's mouth took the shape of an 'o'.

"I see…" was all he said, and Sansa screamed again, this time alongside Sandor. Arya heard the loud noise of something breaking, many other things falling to the floor, and then she heard something slamming against the wall. Multiple times.

"_Oh Sandor! Oh oh oh! OOOOH! SANDOR_!"

Even Gendry's face turned bright red then. He looked at Arya, his eyes wide just like hers, and then both of them just burst out laughing. Arya laughed so much, partially because of how disgusted she was and partially because of how ridiculous and embarrassing the whole situation was, that she bent over herself and her knees started shaking. It was enough to make her forget all aout the _king's blood._

Gendry was bent over to. Arya tried to stand straight again, but she was laughing so much that she almost tripped and she fell against Gendry, throwing both of them to the bed, were they sat down and kept laughing for a good amount of time, until their bellies ached and their ayes were filled with tears.

"I'm s-so so-sorry" she tried to said, but it was hard. Gendry just shook his head while he tried to control himself.

"It's all right…"

Arya stood up from the bed and went to close the door of the room. That, at least, muffled the screams some. She returned to the bed to sit down next to Gendry.

"I can find you another bedroom if you want to" she said, and again he shook his head.

"It's alright. I can't hear them anymore… Seven hells…"

Arya grinned.

"How long do you plan to stay?" she asked, suddenly serious again. Gendry's face because serious as well.

"For as long as your brother allows me to" he said, not taking his eyes off her. "If you want."

She said nothing. She looked away from those blue eyes.

"Arya, do you want me to stay?" Gendry asked, suddenly a little worried because she had turned her face away from him. But she couldn't look at him because she was angry, and sad.

"You left me" she said.

"Arya, they sold me to her, I didn't leave…"

"You were going to stay with Beric Dondarrion" she clarified, and Gendry fell silent. "You were going to leave me alone. You chose them over me. Why?"

It was a couple of seconds before Gendry decided to speak.

"It was the worst mistake that I've ever made in my life" he said, and Arya looked at him again. Gendry;s face was sad too, but then a small smile appeared on his face, merely a shadow. "And because, as you said, I'm a stupid bull-headed boy."

That made Arya smile, and Gendry's became bigger.

"So, I'm asking you. Do you want me to stay?"

"I don't want you to leave" was all that Arya was able to say. It seemed enough.

"Good" then he yawned. He was exhausted from all the travelling, especially during the storm. Arya was pretty tired herself too.

"Good night" she said softly, and she stood up again from the bed and headed towards the door. She opened it, but she immediately started hearing again the awful screams and moans from the newlyweds. It seemed that it wasn't going to get any better anytime soon. She quickly closed the door again and stared at Gendry in horror. "Seven hells! I can't get out there again! I can't sleep next to that pair of rabbits in heat!"

It was enough to make Gendry start laughing again. Arya, however, was not amused.

"Gendry!"

"Alright alright. You can sleep here with me today if you want, m'lady."

Any other lady would have immediately been alarmed, and would have thought how inappropriate and unladylike it would be to accept that offer. Arya, however, did not such thing. She had slept among boys lots of times while she was on the run, and she was used to sleeping next to Gendry. She walked over to the bed and climbed on it, and laid down on it. Gendry finished changing his clothes in the shadows, and when he climbed to the soft bed next to Arya, he was completely dressed in clean and dry clothes, while his wet ones were dumped on the floor feet away from them. Once he had closed his eyes, Arya picked up the pillow and hit Gendry on the face with it, startling him.

"Bloody hells! Arya!" he exclaimed in disbelief, but also smiling.

"That's for calling me m'lady" she hissed, and then she put the pillow back in place and rested her head on it.

Gendry laughed.

"I had almost forgotten what an unladylike little annoying girl you were" he whispered, looking up at the ceiling. Arya, however, was staring at him.

"I'm not so little anymore" she protested,

He nodded. "You're not so annoying anymore either."

Almost instinctively rather than willing, Arya hugged him, catching him by surprise.

"I missed you" she admitted, with her head buried in his chest. She felt Gendry's arms surrounding him.

"I've missed you too."

And with that and the sound of rain, Arya slowly dozed out to sleep. But not before she heard him whispering very, very softly.

"Good night, m'lady."

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**I ship them So. Damn. Hard! I just love both of them! **

**i hope you liked it! If you remember to leave a review, it will e much appreciated! :D**


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you for all the reviews that I got for Chapter 2! :) It's wonderful to see that you like this story ^^**

**Sorry for the delay (again) I used to post chapters every day or every two days, but I was travelling and I had trouble writing this chapter. Finally I made it today!**

**Enjoy!**

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For the next days, Gendry was unable to look at Sandor or Sansa straight to the face. Arya had been amused when she saw him meeting Sansa, and saw him turning red when he learnt who the auburn-haired beauty was. But the real amusement for Arya had come when Gendry had met Sandor. Sansa was confused as to why both her sister and Gendry were acting in such a strange way around her and her husband, but Sandor wasn't fooled. He knew what made Arya and Gendry uncomfortable, and he glared at them. Thankfully the entire matter was forgotten some days later.

Gendry had Bran's approval to stay in Winterfell for as long as they wanted, and he started working as a blacksmith for the castle. He was very good, and he had kept learning while he was in Dorne. Arya visited him in his work place as often as she could, and she did not care at all about the disapproving looks and whispers of many of the people that lived in the castle. Besides, what was wrong about her visiting Gendry? They were just friends! Gendry did seem a little bit uncomfortable about those looks and whispers, thought.

"Arya… Maybe you should stay away from me" he said one day. He was working on a sword, and his chest was bare and sweaty from all the hard work. Arya was sitting down on a stool watching, remembering one time at Harrenhal when she had done the same thing. "Us being friends… it's not proper. Not for a lady like you and… well, and a bastard like me."

"You are stupid" she said. She had an apple on her hand, and she bit it. It was cold outside, it had been snowing during the entire previous night, and so she was wearing a white fur cloak. "We can be friends if we want to, who are they to say anything against it?"

Gendry didn't say anything, he just stared at her while he held the sword that he was making in his hand.

Arya shrugged. "Besides, I'm of the ladies of Winterfell. I can do as I please, and I will order them to shut up if all their whispering and murmuring bothers you. And if they don't obey, well…" she sighed. "Then I guess that we'll have to punish them!"

Gendry opened his eyes and stared at her in shock.

"That's not necessary, Arya!"

She rolled her eyes before looking at him.

"I'm not being serious, stupid. But they won't know that, will they?"

Gendry thought about it for a second and then he shrugged before getting back to work.

"I've heard whispers about your sister too" he murmured them, sounding as if he was shy or unsure whether to speak those words or not. When he saw that Arya was listening to him and her face was serious, he proceeded. "And her husband."

"What have you heard?"

Gendry looked uncomfortable.

"Well… they say that… Forget it."

Arya was not going to forget it. She might have hated her sister when they were younger, but now she loved her, and she would not tolerate anything bad to be said about her.

"I know what you heard about her and Sandor" she said, her voice hostile. Gendry shot her a quick glance, but said nothing. "If you ever dare to say anything bad about my sister…

"I won't" Gendry said, and he was sincere, so Arya spoke no more of the matter.

"My sister is going to go away" she said then, and she was sad. Once again, Gendry stopped working to listen to her. "She and Sandor are going to move to the Dreadfort, you know? All the Boltons are dead, and the Queen has given them that castle. They are going to be Lord and lady Clegane of the Dreadfort."

"And you don't want them to go" Gendry understood that sadness. Arya nodded. "You can go with them."

"And leave Winterfell and Bran and Rickon?" Arya could not leave Winterfell behind again, she couldn't. She feared that if she ever left again, she would never come back this time. No, she would have to say goodbye to her sister. Besides, Sansa would be fine, she had her husband, she was going to be very happy. While Arya would be alone… "Would you go with me?"

"What?" Gendry asked, not understanding.

"Would you go with me? If I left Winterfell" Arya said, looking at him straight in the eye. "Or do you want to stay here?"

There were a few moments of silence until Gendry said, without a trace of doubt in his voice:

"I will go wherever you go if you want me to, m'lady."

And with that he bowed his head and continued working. Arya didn't say anything, she just stood up from the stool and left the smithy, walking back to the castle. She felt strange: usually she got mad whenever Gendry called her _'__m'lady'_. Today, however, she felt kind of happy, and she couldn't stop herself from smiling.

She encountered Bran being carried by Hodor on one of the hallways. Bran called her name to get her attention and she stopped walking and smiled at her younger brother.

"Arya, would you invite your friend Gendry to have supper with us tonight?" Bran asked, making Arya frown. Gendry? Having supper with the Starks?

"Sure" she nodded. She actually really liked the idea, she wanted Gendry to be closer to her and her family… She wanted him to feel like family. "I'll go and tell him."

She just hoped that Gendry didn't decline the offer… which he nearly did.

"Why would a high lord invite me to supper with him?" he asked, clearly very confused. He had that pained expression that he always had whenever he was thinking too hard.

"You are my friend, I'm sure he just wants to know you a bit better" Arya guessed. "And you and I both escaped King's Landing together, and we were through a lot together. Maybe he wants to hear your side of the story!"

"My side of the story? Bloody hells, Arya, I can't go, it's not… proper."

She was starting to get really annoyed with all the _proper _things.

"If you don't go, you can kiss Winterfell goodbye" she warned him before walking away… again. What she had just said wasn't true, she wouldn't kick Gendry out of Winterfell, and neither would Bran. But she really wanted very badly that Gendry accepted.

Sansa, Bran, Rickon and Jon talked a lot to Gendry during supper, which eventually made him feel more comfortable between them. He had been quite tense at first, surrounded by all those highborn people, and he wasn't used to it. Practically all the highborn people that he had met during his life had not treated him well, and many of them had tried to kill him for various reasons. They asked him about his work, about his short stay in Dorne, about how he and Arya had met… They laughed a lot specially when he told them how he had discovered that she was a girl, although he was embarrassed to tell them how he had addressed her until she confessed the truth.

Arya hadn't paid a lot of attention to her siblings and Gendry taking. She had been distracted talking to Sandor and Ygritte, who had similar interests to those that she had, so it was easier and more entertaining to talk to them. Also, Sandor had news for her.

"I've heard word that Walder Frey is back at the Twins" he rasped, making Arya's face grow pale and her eyes go wide. "That rat has been hiding since the war ended, but now he has nowhere else to go. Huh. I'll say that's a bad decision that he made."

"Are you sure?" Arya asked. She didn't notice that her lower lip was trembling and that her hands were shaking.

Sandor nodded. Arya remembered the Red Wedding, and the memories came back to her like images in front of her eyes. She remembered when she saw the mutilated body of her brother Robb, beheaded and with the head of his direwolf in place of his. She had sworn that she would get her revenge… The Boltons were dead, and now it was the time for Walder Frey to pay. It had all been because of his treason… Because of him, Robb and her mother were dead.

She looked at Sandor in the eyes, and she could see that he knew perfectly fine what she was thinking.

"Take me to the Twins" she said, her voice serious and practically emotionless. "I'm going to kill him."

Everybody fell silent then, and they all looked at Sandor. Arya could see Sansa and Ygritte from the corners of her eyes, and she saw that they both silently agreed to what she wanted to do. Ygritte had been a spearwife, she had no trouble with the thought of Arya killing anybody. And Sansa… Sansa had killed her first husband to safe her life and get revenge for what had happened to her son. It had been an accident, sort of, but that did not matter. What mattered was that Sansa approved. Jon knew better than to tell Arya what she could and what she could not do; Bran was perfectly aware that Arya would not care what he had to say; Rickon was silent. He wanted revenge too, though he never said anything.

It was Gendry the one that suddenly jumped on his chair.

"_What?! Are you mad?!_"

She ignored him.

"Are you going to take me there?" she asked Sandor.

He turned his head t the side to look at Sansa and Bran, checking if anyone had anything to say against it. When he saw that neither one of them was going to stop them, he stared back at Arya and nodded.

"How do we do it?" she wanted to know.

"You were trained in the House of Black and White by the Faceless Men, weren't you?"

"Until you popped out of nowhere in Braavos and took me away to Meeren, yes."

"Then it will be easy enough. I'll make sure that you get inside and stay out of trouble, then you take care of the old decrepit. You can avenge your mother and brother then."

Yes, she was going to make Walder Frey pay. She would make him suffer. She would never forget the sight of her dead brother with the head of Grey Wind on his shoulders. She wanted to cry when she remembered that.

Gendry pulled her out of her thoughts.

"Arya, you can't…" he was saying. He appeared to be nervous. "It's too dangerous."

"I'll be fine, Gendry."

"No, you won't" he insisted. "That castle will be filled with people, you can't just go in and kill its lord, they will kill you first! And even if you do kill him, how do you get out? You are only two people, Arya, two people…"

"We escaped Harrenhal, remember? And you escaped the Red Woman."

"With help!" he exclaimed. He appeared to have forgotten that he was with the entire Stark family, and he was practically yelling at one of them. "Why don't you send a raven to the Dragon Queen? She can get Walder Frey out of the Twins and you can go to the execution. Kill him yourself, if you want, but do it once it's safe to do it!"

"I want to kill him in the same place where he betrayed and murdered my family!" Arya shouted, and Gendry stared at her in silence, a little bit shocked. Arya was furious, and she still wanted to cry. She could feel the tears stinging in her eyes. "And neither you nor anyone will stop me from doing it!"

She stood up from the table and stormed out of the dining room, and Sansa followed her.

"Arya! Arya!" Sansa stopped her in the middle of the hallway. Arya was already crying when Sansa caught her. "Arya, it's alright… It's alright…"

"No, Sansa, it's not alright… You don't know how horrible it was, seeing our brother there, dead with Grey Wind's head sewn to his shoulders…"

Sansa took a deep breath. It was hard for her to imagine such a thing.

"I can imagine, Arya, believe me… I can. But maybe Gendry is right? Maybe you should wait…"

Arya snapped.

"How did you feel when they told you that your son was dead?"

She had never seen her sister so pale. She could tell that she was trying to control the anger that had suddenly filled her inside.

"My son is not dead" Sansa hissed.

She kept saying that every time, that her son wasn't dead. She kept repeating her version, that her baby had been stolen by Joffrey and Cersei when he was born, but the truth was that Sansa had run away and no one had ever seen that baby, dead or alive. They all believed that she was crazy.

"Fine, but ether way… if he is dead, or if he was stolen, it doesn't matter. He was taken away from you. How does that feel, Sansa?" Arya said in a quiet voice. "You killed the man that hurt you… So don't you understand me? I need to kill the man that did that to my mother and brother. And I need to do it myself, I can't wait. He is old, he can die any day, and I don't want him to leave this world peacefully and warm in his bed."

That, Sansa could understand. That was why, when Arya was going to leave with Sandor and Jon a few days later to go to the Twins, she went to tell her goodbye and wish her luck. Jon and Sandor were saying goodbye to Ygritte and Sansa, and Arya used that moment to walk to were Gendry was standing.

"So… I guess that you are not coming" she said.

"This is madness, Arya" was all he said.

"I need to do this. For my family, Gendry!" she tried to explain to him, but he wouldn't understand her. How could he? He had no family. It made Arya feel mad. "So, I will ask you again. Will you come with me, or not?"

Gendry thought about it for a second, not taking his blue eyes off her.

"I will not go and watch you kill yourself" he replied then. "I will not stand there as I lose you again. I will not help you with this madness."

She wanted to yell and punch him. But she did neither one of those things. Instead, she stared at him coldly, and when she spoke, her voice was just as cold and deadly.

"So much for '_I'll go wherever you go if you want me to, m'lady'_" she spat.

Before gendry could say anything back, she turned her back on him and walked away. She mounted her horse and went to join Jon and Sandor, and together, the three of them rode away from Winterfell, starting their way towards the Twins.

* * *

**So, I think I could have done a better job, but this chapter was kind of tricky and I'm sleepy. However, I hope that you liked it :)**

**Leave your reviews, please!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Well, I finally have this ready! I haven't updated in weeks because I was busy (summer and all) but from now on I will have more time to write! So I hope that I won't keep you waiting anymore from now on! **

**I really hope that you like this chapter! Enjoy! :D**

* * *

After a long day of riding, Arya, Sandor and Jon, along with the men that they had taken with them, dismounted their horses and fed them, and then settled down for the night after they ate something. Arya hadn't spoken a word in the entire day, and she had been rather absent-minded. Jon and Sandor hadn't failed to notice, but they chose not to mention it until they were getting ready to rest for the night.

"You can still back off" Jon told her at nightfall.

"What? No!" she exclaimed, frowning and finally speaking. She shivered and tried to cover herself up more with the blanket that she had brought. Although they had stopped to sleep in a very good place, it was winter and it was freezing cold.

"You've been tense the whole buggering day" Sandor said. "Is it because of that smith?"

"NO!"

She knew that Sandor and Jon knew that she was lying, and she felt her cheeks burning hot with rage, but both men restrained himself from saying anything. Sandor just shrugged and went off to sleep beneath his own blanket. It was just a matter of seconds before he fell asleep and started snoring lightly. Jon, on the other hand, laid down on his back and stared at the bright stars that were shining brightly in the dark sky.

Arya could not sleep so easily. The truth was that she was furious. First Gendry said one thing, and then he did another, it got on her nerves. The truth was that she wasn't surprised; after all, it wasn't the first time that he did such a thing. He had already left her alone years ago. She should have told Bran to kick him out of Winterfell that first night that he appeared in the castle, and they should have let him rot under the rain. Arya wanted to feel sorry for having helped him and been his friend... But she couldn't completely hate him. And she hated that awkward feeling inside her chest and belly, like if she had a pit full of butterflies deep inside her.

In the end, she just wanted to arrive at the Twins and get that whole situation over with. And she needed to forget Gendry and how mad she was with him, at least for the time being. She needed to sleep.

She twisted and turned around over and over again under her blanket, uncomfortable and wide awake yet tired, and the cold wasn't helping. She didn't know how late it was, or how many hours of sleep she had left, and it was starting to bother her.

Then she remembered a similar situation in which she had found herself in the past, at Harrenhal, and she remembered how she had managed to get some sleep back then. In the past she had many names, but in the present she had only one name to whisper:

"Walder Frey."

She whispered the name under her breath many times. _Walder Frey, Walder Frey, Walder Frey, Walder Frey, Walder Frey... _The name had already lost it's sense when sleep claimed her.

* * *

It was sunrise when they woke her up. She was so tired that she did not want to open her eyes, and she grunted in a bad mood. Sandor or Jon (she supposed that it was one of them trying to wake her up) shook her more insistently, and she protested more. In her sleep, she had forgotten all about going to the Twins, and her back and neck hurt from the uncomfortable position in which she had been during the cold night. She just wanted some more rest.

"Get lost!" she muttered, her eyes still shut.

She heard an indignant laugh that most certainly did not belong to Jon or the Hound.

"Damn it, Arya, wake up!" a voice that even more certainly wasn't the Hound's or Jon's said with an amused ring to it.

Her eyes went wide open, and she gasped when she saw the young smiling man with the black hair and the blue eyes. As soon as her shock faded, rage filled her up. Before she said anything, she raised her had and hit Gendry as hard as she could on his shoulder.

"Stupid!" she exclaimed angrily, but that did not erase the grin from Gendry's face. She wanted to punch him so hard… "What are you doing here?!"

"Well, I realized that it would be stupid to let you go on with this madness alone. You could get hurt."

"I'm not alone!" she protested. She stood up and then rolled the blanket with her hands before throwing it at Gendry's face. The impact made him take a step back.

"Bloody hells, Arya, your arms are stronger than before!" Gendry exclaimed, still with a grin on his face. Arya thought that his voice sounded funny somehow, but she didn't pay much attention to it.

"You two lovebirds!" Sandor exclaimed then, trying to get their attention. Arya felt her face turn even a darker red than before. "Are you coming or not!"

They broke their fast, and then they mounted their horses to keep riding towards the Twins. Arya eyed Gendry's horse; she had never seen that horse, black as the night, in Winterfell, so she wondered where he had gotten it. Had he stole it? She didn't find it necessary to steal a horse when Bran would just give Gendry any horse that he wanted.

Her direwolf, Nymeria, had also come with them. A direwolf always came in handy in a fight, if there was to be one. Arya had found Nymeria months ago, in the woods near Winterfell. Somehow, the direwolf had managed to find her master, and Arya had never been happier. She had missed her direwolf terrily since the day that she had to make her run away so that Cersei Lannister wouldn't dispose of her just as she did with Lady. Jon was also travelling with his direwolf Ghost.

"How did you find us?" Jon suddenly asked Gendry, making the young man turn his head around to look at him. Everyone's attention was now on the bastard, for they all wondered the same thing. He just shrugged.

"I followed the tracks. It wasn't that hard. Besides, I already knew which way you were going, didn't I?

Of course, it had been a stupid question. It was obvious that Gendry only had to follow the way from Winterfell to the Twins, and sooner or later he would have found them. It had been sooner rather than later.

"Have you any idea how you're going to get in once you're there?" Gendry asked then. Sandor grunted and shook his head.

"No. We still have to decide and make a plan."

"Why don't we just go in and that's it?" Arya asked then. She didn't understand why it was so complicated for everyone else. "The Tullys are their liege lords, I'm half a Tully, and they don't know that we know that Walder Frey is there! For all they know, you could be going there to negociate marrying me off!"

Right after she said that, she felt bile rising up in her throat at the mere thought of it, which was disgusting.

"After what happened the last time that your family was there for a wedding?!" Sandor exclaimed. "Hell no, they aren't that fucking stupid. They know that no Stark or Tully will ever marry a Frey again."

"Or even go to the Twins to peacefully talk" Jon added.

"And, they betrayed their guests once. Who says they won't do it again?"

"But we are not at war anymore…"

"But you are still a threat" Sandor rasped. "When they look at you, they won't see the little wolf-bitch of years ago. They will see the Stark that rode into Westeros mounted on a fucking dragon and almost burned King's Landing to the ground. And they won't like it. People don't like to be afraid. They want to get rid of their fears, just as little kids kill spiders in fear that it will bite them. For the Freys, you are that spider."

"I'm not a spider" she replied a little bit angrily. "I'm a wolf of Winterfell."

Sandor looked at her but said nothing. After a few seconds of tense silence, he just nodded his head, as if recognizing that she was right. Sandor had gained a lot of respect for Arya in the few past years, and it had been the same the other way around. And he did have to give it to her, she was a fierce wolf. All of the Starks were.

"Will they also try to kill him?" Gendry asked then, referring to Jon. "He's the Prince, after all."

Sandor scoffed.

"They already killed a King. What will stop them from doing the same to a Prince?"

"Surely they won't want Daenerys's dragons burning them alive if they dare to harm her nephew."

"It's too risky" Sandor said. "We have to get inside the fucking Twins without been seen. The best thing would be at night, and we need a fucking good plan."

"Then leave it to me" Gendry said with determination, and they all looked at him, frowning. He looked at all three of them in the eyes. "I can get us in."

"How?" Sandor asked, narrowing his eyes with suspicion.

"Trust me."

"Why would I do that? You could get all of our sorry arses killed!"

"Sandor, trust him" Arya said then, earning a stunned stare from his goodbrother.

"Now you favor him!? Last night you didn't seem so happy with him!"

She felt her cheeks burning.

"I'm still not happy with him" she muttered, glaring at Gendry, who was looking at her in silence. "But I trust him. And we _need_ to get inside the Twins. He says he can do it, and at least he has an idea. That's more than what you can say."

Neither Sandor nor Jon said anything, for they both knew that she was right. She wasn't happy about defending Gendry, but in that situation she had no other choice; she desperately wanted to be in front of Walder Frey, look him in the eyes and make him pay. If Gendry could make that happen, so be it.

She looked at the young man again, only to find that he was still staring at her. When their eyes met, her heart skipped a beat, and he gave her a little sideways smile, as in gratitude for giving him a chance, or maybe it was a comforting smile. She didn't want to guess which one, and she didn't want to look at him any longer because she was still terribly mad at him. Yes, he had changed his mind and was now going with her to the Twins, but that didn't change the fact that he hadn't gone with her _at the beginning_.

"If they catch us because of you, I'll geld you, boy" Sandor rasped menacingly, pointing a warning finger at Gendry.

"Don't worry. That won't happen."

* * *

The night that they finally arrived at the Twins, they all waited patiently hidden between the trees while Gendry went off to deal with the guards at the gates. Honestly, Arya had no idea of how Gendry pretended to try and do that, but she hadn't seen him in years, and she had no clue of what he was capable of doing now. Maybe he had received training of some kind, and he was truly capable of sneaking them in. She waited quite impatiently; even thought she hadn't talked much to Gendry while on the road and she was still pretending that she had mad at him, she was really anxious and scared. What if something bad happened to him? What if he was caught and killed? She was suddenly afraid, and she dreaded that that would happen. She realized that she couldn't take it.

"Why is he taking so long?" she whispered, he voice was shaking.

"Hush, Arya, it's not easy to get rid of the guards at the gates" Jon told her. "You said you trusted him."

"I do! But… But… Shouldn't we send Nymeria and Ghost to help him?"

"Do you want to get discovered?" Sandor rasped, and she shook her head. "Then wait and stay quiet!"

"But can you hear anything?"

"No! Now shut up."

A few minutes passed, and then they suddenly heard a whistle. That was the sign. Gendry had succeeded.

"Move!" Sandor told Arya, Jon and the knights to get out of their hiding.

They all walked towards the Twins. Gendry was there at the gates of the first tower, and on a pile next to him where the bodies of all the dead guards. It shocked Arya and she nearly stopped walking because of that. Had Gendry really done that all by himself? But how?! She had never seen him killing anyone.

Sandor and Jon were surprised as well, and Gendry greeted all of them with a grin on his face.

"I told you you could trust me" he said, and again Arya thought that his voice sounded funny somehow. That was not the best time to point it out, however, so she said nothing about it.

They all crossed the gates and entered the Twins. Arya could not believe it, they made it! They were inside! Now all she had to do was find Walder Frey, and have her vengeance.

"What should we do know?" one of the knights that had come with them dared to ask, keeping his voice very low so that they wouldn't be discovered by anyone inside the castle.

"We need to find Walder Frey" Jon said.

"How do we do that? If anyone sees us…"

"I'll go alone" Arya said then, earning the shocked looks of both her cousin and her goodbrother and also the knights. "I was trained in Braavos, I can sneak around without been seen. I can take Nymeria with me, she'll protect me" she added, patting her direwolf in the head.

"Arya, this is crazy…" Jon started saying, but Sandor cut him off.

"She can do it" he rasped. "She is perfectly capable of doing it. Let her go."

Jon seemed to doubt at first, but then he just looked at Arya and sighed before nodding, letting her know that he was ok with it. She smile a small smile that was supposed to comfort Jon and let him know that nothing was going to happen to her, and then she also looked at Sandor to silently let him know that she was grateful to him for trusting her.

"Be careful" she said. "Anyone could pass by here and find you. Do whatever you have to do."

"Are you sure you will be alright?"

"I will" she nodded. She had never been so sure of anything in her life. She stared at her direwolf. "Come, Nymeria."

She had her sword Needle in her hand, and she started walking through the hallways of the castle. It was all dark, but she had no trouble finding her way; she was using all her senses, and she trusted her instinct.

"Nymeria" she whispered to her direwolf "find Walder Frey. Go girl."

It seemed that the direwolf had understood her, because she started leading the way. Arya trusted the direwolf, and she followed behind her. What other choice did she have, anyways? She was starting to get a funny feeling in the pit of her stomach, like if she was sick. She was nervous. She had waited a long time for this moment.

She hated that place. Her brother and mother had been murdered there, along with the Stark men. Arya thought that she could hear the screams filling the dark and cold hallways, the clashing of the steel of the swords, the bards singing the Rains of Castamere…

She shivered. She remembered when she had arrived at that place only to see the Freys parading around the body of her dead brother with Greywind's head sewed on top of his shoulders. She wanted to cry, but she wouldn't. She couldn't. She had a task to do. Tonight, the Red God would receive a death.

"Arya."

She turned around, startled, and almost stabbed Gendry in the belly with Needle. He jumped back just in time to dodge the Valyrian steel word.

"What are you doing here?!" she hissed, angry because he had scared her. "I could have screamed! I could have killed you!"

"I had to come with you. What if someone finds you? You'll need a hand!"

"I don't need your help, and I don't want it. Where are the others?"

"We heard footsteps, so they had to hide" Gendry explained. "I came here to find you. Do you even know where you are going?"

"Nymeria is going to find Wlader Frey for me" Arya said, and Gendry looked down at the direwolf, who was staring back at him. As soon as the young man and the direwolf made eye contact, Nymeria started growling with an angry face.

"I don't think your pet likes me" Gendry commented, partially amused. For the third time, Arya noticed how his voice sounded off and strange.

"She's smart" she spat. "And what is wrong with your voice?"

Gendry looked at her confused, and he frowned.

"My _voice_?"

"Yes, it sounds funny… Like if you had an accent."

"Maybe I picked it up in Dorne."

"No, you didn't. You didn't sound like that in Winterfell."

"Arya, there's nothing wrong with my voice, and I don't think that this is a great time to discuss such matters" he said. "Unless you want to be found and killed."

She scoffed, and turned her back on him, and resumed following Nymeria around the castle. The direwolf silently guided her the right way, leading Arya and Gendry to the great hall.

The door was open, and they could look inside. It was dark, illuminated only by the moonlight that came through the narrow windows. It was empty, except for a very old man that stood in front of one of the windows, looking outside at the river.

Arya had never seen Walder Frey, but she knew that it was him. Her instinct was screaming at her that it was him.

She silently ordered Nymeria to stay quiet and still outside, and then she looked at Gendry in the eyes. He was serious, and there was a cold determination in his blue eyes. Arya felt something strange deep inside her once again. Those were not the eyes that she knew, there was something different about them. But that wasn't the time for such thoughts. What had to e done needed to be done quickly. Gendry nodded slightly, giving her courage, and she took a deep and silent breath before leaving him behind and entering the great hall.

_Silent as a cat, quick as a snake _she thought, remembering Syrio Forel's lessons. He had taught her how to be a water dancer, and she would not fail.

She silently sneaked up behind Walder Frey's back, getting closer and closer to him. Her grip on her sword was so strong that it hurt. She could feel her heart beating furiously inside her chest…

She was right behind him now. One move, that's all that it would take. One move, and it was over.

_This is for my mother, and for Robb. _

Walder Frey turned around then, and looked at her with his half blind eyes. Arya froze, afraid that he would shout for help, but the old man did no such thing.

"Young Stark… heh, I knew that you would come someday, heh…" he said with a broken voice. He seemed to be waiting, but Arya didn't move. She just stood there with Needle in her hand, while she looked at the man who destroyed her family with eyes full of hate. "Well? Are you just going to stay there? Heh."

Arya wanted to kill him, every cell in her body was screaming at her to do it, but she was frozen in place. Hot tears were filling her eyes, and threatening to fall down her cheeks.

Walder Frey raised an old, wrinkled, boney and shaking finger and pointed at a spot on the floor of the great hall.

"That's… where your goodsister was slaughtered, heh. She was with child, heh." he said. Arya couldn't decipher the tone of his voice, she couldn't tell if he was enjoying telling her that or not. Then the old man pointed at another spot on the floor, close to the first one. "That's where Roose Bolton… heh, stabbed your brother, heh."

There was a faint smile in his old, cruel and wrinkled face now. Tears ran down Arya's face now, and she felt that she couldn't breath.

Finally, Walder Frey pointed at a third spot.

"And that's where your mother was killed, heh. She screamed like a pig in heat before they cut her throat open, heh."

Neddle buried itself Walder Frey's body, stopping the words from coming out of his mouth anymore. He looked at Arya with his eyes wide open, and his mouth and hands were shaking. Arya twisted the small sword inside his belly, causing a pool of blood to form beneath them on the stone floor. When she spoke, she did it loud and clear, so that the man that had betrayed her mother and brother could hear her:

"Valar Morghulis."

She took Needle out of his body with one quick movement, and Walder Frey's lifeless corpse fell to the floor at her feet. She looked at him with no joy, nor hatred nor pity. She felt nothing. She just stood there, with a bloodstained Needle in her hand, on a pool of traitor's blood.

She heard a voice behind her then. At first she thought that she had been discovered, but she recognized the strongly accented voice that she hadn't heard in years.

"A girl has grown. A girl has no mercy."


	5. Chapter 5

**Oh my God, I can't believe I was so long without updating! As an excuse, I must say that I was traveling, and College started (finally! Bye bye High School!) so I was literally unable to write anything for neither one of my stories! But now, finally, I'm back! :D I hope you all had a wonderful summer!**

**Ok, so I have no idea how the rules of the Faceless Men wobut or if there are restrictions whenfit comes to whom they can change into... But whatever, this is fanfiction! I can dowhatever I want! **

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Arya turned around as soon as she heard those words. In the entrance of the main hall, where Gendry had been standing mere seconds ago, was now Jaquen H'ghar, the Faceless Man that Arya hadn't seen in four years, since he helped her scape Harrenhal and taught her those words in High Valyrian that she had pronounced as she killed Walder Frey- Valar Morghulis.

Jaquen was dresses with Gendry's clothes, and he had the same face that he had when Arya first met him: she recognized immediately the hair red on one side and white on the other. His voice sounded funny in the same way that Gendry's had sounded, just that now the accent was stronger. It only took Arya two seconds to realized what had happened.

"You..." she mumbled, her voice shaking. Jaquen just nodded, his eyes never leaving her face. "Why...?"

"A girl needed help. A man gave it to her."

"But why?!" she exclaimed, her voice stronger now. She took a few steps backward, leaving bloody footsteps on the stone floor. She didn't know how she felt, she was confused. But angry was probably the best way to describe her feelings right at that moment. Cheated, maybe. "Why did you come?! Why did you help me?! Why are you disguised as Gendry?! How did you find us?!"

"A man followed a girl all the way from Winterfell. A man was curious to see what a girl would do" Jaquen said as he slowly approached her. "Taking a boy's face was the safest way for a man to approach a girl and see what a man wanted to see."

"But, but... Have you been Gendry the whole time?" she asked, now in a calmer tone of voice (she didn't want to wake up the inhabitants of the castle and alert of the murder of their lord) but she was still shaking. She dreaded the answer.

Much to her relief, this time Jaquen shook his head. For some reason, the thought that Jaquen might have been disguised as Gendry the whole time had scared her, and she was happy that Gendry was still at Winterfell... Until she realized what that meant.

"Then... Gendry never changed his mind? He left me alone...?" she whispered with astonishment. Jaquen didn't say anything, he just stood there watching her. She scoffed, feeling furious and... abandoned. "He left me alone."

It wasn't a question this time. It was a statement. And it hurt, it hurt more than anything in the world. She gasped (which sounded more like a sob than a gasp) and her back hit the wall. She dropped Needle without even noticing that she had let go of the sword, and she closed her hand to a fist, burying her fingernails in her palm.

"Is a girl alright?" Jaquen asked, taking another small step towards her.

Arya didn't look at him, she was looking at the floor, and she slowly shook her head. "No" she finally said "a girl is not alright."

"A man knew a girl needed help."

"A girl didn't need help!" she exclaimed angrily again.

"But a girl wanted the help. She wanted company. Is a man wrong?"

Jaquen was right. She didn't need Gendry, she didn't need anyone. But she hadn't wanted to be alone. She hadn't been alone, Jon and Sandor had been there with her, but she had wanted Gendry there with her too. The fact that he had decided to stay at Winterfell hurt her like a knife in the heart, and she couldn't understand why. Stupid, stupid bull headed boy! And stupid her for feeling that way! What in Seven Hells was wrong with her?!

She felt tears stinging in her eyes, and she dried then using her sleeve. Then she saw the corpse of Walder Frey lying on the floor in a pool of blood, and she felt something shattering within herself. She had taking her revenge believing the entire time that Gendry was the one standing behind her, supporting her, but he hadn't been there. In her place there was Jaquen, the man that had also left her when they escaped Harrenhal. Everybody left her at some point or another, and those who didn't died. She was sick and tired of it, and she hadn't been able to admit it to herself until now.

"I want to get out of here" she said, picking Needle from the floor. Then she looked at Jaquen, whose eyes were still fixed on her. "Please."

He nodded, and then he turned around to walked towards the doors, where he awaited for her. She shed, and took a last look around the place where the Red Wedding had happened years ago, the place where her mother, brother, and goodsister had perished in the hands of treason. She wanted to get out of that horrible place, so she looked down to the floor and followed Jaquen to the doors. There she stopped and looked at him again, but it was like she saw him for the first time that night. Now she was looking at him without remembering Gendry, and she was able to smile a little bit. She was taller now, so she didn't have to look up a lot to look at Jaquen in the eyes, like she had to do before. He stared back at her, and then she hugged him (being careful as to not hurt him with Needle). It seemed to catch him by surprise, but he returned the hug.

"It's good to see you again, Jaquen" she whispered.

"It's good to see a girl again" the Faceless Man admitted.

"What are you really doing here?"

"A man saw a girl back in Braavos, before a girl left with her family. A man has heard many stories about a girl, flying on a dragon into King's Landing with the Queen. A man has been watching over a girl, and a man has seen that a girl is very brave... But a girl can not do everything alone."

She didn't insist anymore saying that she didn't need help, because she knew that Jaquen was right anyways. She couldn't do everything alone. He was right when he had said that she had wanted the company. She had been alone for so long, _felt_ alone for so long that she couldn't resist it anymore.

"What are you going to do now?" she asked then. Would Jaquen leave, now that she had killed Walder Frey? "Are you going to leave?"

"Does a girl want a man to leave?" he asked in return to her question.

Arya thought about it and realized that she would feel much worse if he left. She slowly shook her head, and it was answer enough for the Faceless man.

"A man will take a girl to Winterfell. Now let's go and find your friends..."

They walked all the way back without making any noise and without being discovered. They found Sandor and Jon alone near the main entrance of the castle, with the knight that had accompanied them nowhere in sight. Arya wondered what had happened, and she saw Jon's and Sandor's swords bloodstained.

"There were some knights" Sandor explained, whispering so that they wouldn't be discovered. "We killed them before they could raise the alarm... Did you find the fucking old bastard?"

Arya just nodded her head without saying any words, and she could hear Sandor whispering "good!" while Jon also remained silent. When she raised her eyes to him, she saw that her cousin was staring at Jaquen and was pointing his sword at him.

"Who are you?" he asked then, and Sandor just seemed to notice the Faceless man. He pointed his sword at him as well.

"Bloody hells!"

"He's a friend" Arya quickly said before anything bad happened, and Jon and Sandor shot her a perplexed look. "His name is Jaquen, he helped me escape when I was in Harrenhal."

"Why is he wearing the smith's clothes?"

"He has been the smith the whole way over here" Arya said then, her voice sounding somewhat resentful even though she didn't notice it, and she walked past the two men to leave the castle with Jaquen behind.

"Where are the other men?" Jaquen asked then.

"We sent them back with the horses."

They went back to the place where they had left the horses hidden and where the knights had been waiting for them after Jon and Sandor told them to leave the castle. They seemed extremely relieved to see that they were all safe and sound, but they were also extremely confused when they saw Jaquen instead of Gendry mounting the horse that the young man had been riding all those days. However, they knew (judging by Arya's expression) that they shouldn't ask questions.

They all looked back a pt the Twins one last time to make sure that they still hadn't been discovered and no one was following them, and then they rode away in silence. The way back to Winterfell seemed much shorter than the trip down to the Riverlands, but it was even more tortuous for Arya than the first one had been. She barely said a word, and even thought she felt relieved that she had finally had her revenge, she felt awful. Not because of what she had done, obviously. She couldn't really explain what was happening to her. It felt as if something had broken inside her, and she wasn't able to fix it, mainly because she had no idea what was wrong. She felt stupid, and acted moody the whole time. Sandor and Jin had tried to talk to her, but she kept pushing them away. Only Jaquen succeeded in getting closer to her and actually get her to speak a word.

"Why did you do it?" she asked one day, so lowly that only Jaquen was able to hear her. "Come with me. I know that you said that you knew that I... couldn't do it alone" she felt embarrassed of saying those word out loud, they tasted like vinegar in her mouth. "But why? Why did you care?"

Jaquen didn't respond for a couple of seconds, he just stared into the distance. Arya was started to doubt he had heard her, when suddenly he replied:

"A girl is strong, and brave. She has the courage of a thousand armies of strong warriors" he turned his head to stare at her. His eyes were somehow warm. "A man admires a girl."

Finally, after many days of keeping her expression hard as stone and cold as ice, Arya smiled a little bit. It was a very small, almost unnoticeable smile, but it was enough.

When they finally reached Winterfell days later, Sansa ran towards them, eager to hug her husband and sister and cousin, and Ygritte came running behind her.

"Seven hells, I was so worried!" she exclaimed. Sansa almost never swore, which meant that she had been really scared for them while they were gone. "I thought you might be dead!"

Sandor was the one that took her in her arms first, and they kissed passionately before she let go of her husband, hugged her cousin who later ran to the arms of his wife, and then she saw Arya.

"Arya!" Sansa exclaimed with a huge and relieved smile on her face. "Gods, Arya, I was so scared... Are you alright?"

Arya nodded. "He's dead" was all she said.

Sansa immediately understood, and a serious and solemn expression took over her face. She knew how revenge tasted like, and she knew that her sister had needed her.

"Good" she said then, really meaning it.

Arya didn't talk anymore with her older sister, for she had just seen Gendry standing on his feet a few meters away from where they were, his eyes moving nervously from her to the ground, unsure of what to do or say or where to look, but he also looked relieved. Very relieved and incredibly uncomfortable. Arya fell a hot rage within her, an explosion of fury, and she walked past her sister and everybody else towards Gendry.

"Arya..."

He couldn't finish what he wanted to say, for in that moment Arya's fist collided against his face. Gendry fell to the ground and he took his hands to his face, where he had a pained (and surprised!) expression. Blood was running from his nose.

Arya heard everyone gasping behind her back (but maybe a man or two chuckled, amused) but she didn't say anything. She didn't as much as give Gendry a second glance before she walked away and entered the castle.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello guys! This was a quick update!** **It's a very short chapter that I wrote during a very boring class but I hope you enjoy it! :D**

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His face hurt. It hurt a lot. Specially his jaw and his nose, though he wasn't sure if he could feel his cheek. Bloody hells! Who would have thought that such a little thing as Arya Stark would have such a steel-like fist?!

Gendry took his hand to his nose and found blood in it when he removed it. He was shocked. He knew that Arya was mad, (ok, _very_ mad) but he had thought that he would push him away or something, like she always did when she was younger and she got pissed off with him.

_But she no longer is that little girl, _Gendry realized while he stared at the blood in his hand. _Everyone knows that. She's like the bloody Stranger now._

He got up from the ground, shaking the dirt off his messy clothes, and he wiped the blood off his face. His nose wasn't broken, but he didn't care about that anyways.

He had been so relieved when he had seen her come back. For weeks, he thought he had really lost her forever this time. He couldn't sleep, he had nightmares of a raven coming from the Twins warning about Arya's death, murderer during the attempt of her crazy, suicidal plan. He couldn't eat, he couldn't even think properly! He thought he was going mad with each day that passed and he looked at the horizon outside the walls of Winterfell and she was not there. He remembered how he had had the change of going with her, he could have talked her out of her stupid idea on the way to the Twins! But he, being a stupid bull as he was, hadn't done anything. He had just stood there and watched as she rode off.

He had thought about taking one of the horses and going after her, but he hadn't for two reasons. He was afraid of two things that could happen at the Twins. One was watching her die, his heart would shatter in pieces if Arya were killed and he was there unable to stop it from happening. His other fear, however, was that his guilt would haunt him to madness. Guilt of what happened years ago…

He raised his head then, and he saw the people watching him with concern and shock after what had happened with Arya and him. No one had expected the young lady to punch him, much less to punch him with so much anger! Sansa Stark sighed and ran off chasing after her little sister, hoping to see what was wrong. Gendry glared at everyone else, and they all took their eyes off him…

… All of them except one man. At first, he thought that he had never seen that man before in Winterfell, and he frowned. Then he recognized him, and he could feel the blood draining from his face, making him pale. He just felt plain confused, and then… then he felt furious.

It was that man, Jaqen Whatever-The-Fuck-His-Family-Name-Was. The assassin, the man that had helped them escape Harrenhal… The man that had spent a great deal of time with Arya when they were prisoners, whispering the-gods-knew-what in the shadows…

He walked towards the man, who didn't move even an inch when he saw the young man coming. Gendry stopped in front of him, and shot daggers through his eyes to the other man. The braavosi didn't even seem to care, his face was like cold hard marble.

"What are you doing here?" Gendry hissed.

"A man was doing his job" was the simple answer.

"Oh really? And what was that?" Gendry spat. "We haven't seen you in years, you just left after you took us away from that place. Why have you come back now? Why were you with Arya?"

Jaqen raised his eyebrows with curiosity. Gendry found it annoying, and extremely so.

"A boy suddenly cares? A boy asks why a man was in the company of a girl?"

"I always care about anything that has to do with her" Gendry said. He really hated the way that that man had of speaking and referring of himself and other people.

Jaqen looked skeptic. "Really? A boy cares about a girl? But a boy does not seem to care much about what happens to a girl. A boy left her alone."

Wait, _what_?! Who was this guy anyway to come and say to him that he did not care about Arya?! Gendry wanted so badly to punch him in the face, but he restrained himself. He knew that the man was dangerous.

"What she wanted to do was stupid and suicidal" he said, shaking.

"So a boy left a girl to die alone."

"I didn't…!"

"Yes, a boy did. A boy knew that a girl would be in danger, and a boy was too coward to do what he should have done if he were a real man."

"**_How dare you…?!"_**

"A man dares, because it is true" for the first time since the beginning of that conversation, Jaqen seemed annoyed and displeased. He looked down on Gendry like he was some worthless little insect. He took a step closer, intimidating Gendry with his gaze. The smith had to admit that the braavosi man did have a dangerous halo around him. "A boy wants to know what a man was doing with a girl? A man was doing what a boy was not able to do."

Those words hit Gendry just like Arya's fist had hit him in the face, or maybe even worse. His first reaction was being infuriated and indignant; he wanted to yell at the man and lunch him and kick him out of that place... But he couldn't kick someone out of a castle that was not his.

His second reaction was feeling pain at the realization of how right Jaqen H'ghar was. It was true, the man had been doing for Arya was Gendry couldn't do. It had always been like that, since years ago. Back at Harrenhal, Jaqen had killed for Arya, he had helped her and her friends escape... He had given Arya the freedom that Gendry couldn't. And now he had protected her while she carried out her revenge, a moment in which she needed help and Gendry had not been able to see it.

He swallowed hard, trying to put his thoughts in order. It was very difficult, with the pain and fury and shame and guilt that he was feeling. And also, envy. He remembered the day that Arya had said that she needed Jaqen. She had said it with such desperation in her voice... It felt like something was eating Gendry's intestines.

"You also left her alone" he muttered, trying to come up with an excuse to not feel like such a huge little shit. "You went to whatever hole you came from and left her alone."

"A man proposed her to go with him, but she said she had to find her family" Jaqen hissed. It was unnatural to sense such sudden anger in the foreign man's voice. "And even then, she had a man's help, help with which she travelled to Braavos, to a safe place! It was in Braavos where, without her knowing it, a man was watching over her day and night, training her, making sure a girl was alright, until her family came and took her away. Then a man let her go, and then travelled to Westeros to see with a man's own eyes that a girl was happy and safe. And what did a man find? A cowardly boy that would let a lovely girl die a terrible death."

Jaqen took a step forward, and Gendry took a step back against his will. Jaqen grinned.

"Perhaps a man should turn a cowardly boy into an offering for the Red God?"

Gendry paled. He had already had his share of bad experiences in name of that fucking red god, and only the memory of Dragonstone almost made his tremble. He opened his mouth, wanting to say something to defend himself, when Sandor arrived at their side with a suspicious look on his face.

"Everythung alright here?" he rasped, eyeing both men.

Jaqen raised his eyebrows at Gendry, waiting for him to answer. Irritated, Gendry answered between his teeth:

"Yes, milord. Everything's just fine..."

Sandor didn't appear to believe it. That man could sniff lies, Gendry was sure of it.

"You know each other?"

"We've met before" this time, Jaqen answered. Sandor didn't seem happy with him, Gendry could sense it.

"Look, whoever the fuck you are, just know that I don't like you" Sandor rasped, and Gendry felt a faint sensation of relieve upon hearing those words. "I don't trust you, though the little she-wolf has told us to do so. But I don't like all that shit of changing faces. If you cross the line, just know that Arya can go bugger herself for all I care, because I will kill you. Understood?"

Instead of threatened or scared, Jaqen seemed highly amused an about to burst out laughing. Maybe if Gendry was lucky, the man would do just that and the abound would kill him. But he didn't laugh.

"Of course" he said. And without saying another word, he turned around an left, leaving a very annoyed Sandor and a very angry Gendry behind.

"I hate him" the young man muttered, and Sandor stared down at him, looking displeased.

"Just so you know, I don't like you either" the huge scarred man said. "From now on, if I were you I would be more careful around Arya, if you don't want to end with something worse than that bloody nose. She could stick you with the pointy end."

Then he walked away, leaving Gendry alone, and incredibly confused but with the certain knowledge that, regarding Arya Stark, he had completely screwed up everything.


	7. Chapter 7

**Well, here is another chapter! There isn't a lot of action in this one, but I promise that lots of stuff are going to happen in the nexchomping chapters, starting in the next update, so I hope you like it! **

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Sansa entered her sister's chambers and entered when she saw Arya sitting on the bed, with her back facing the door and her long brunette curls cascading down her shoulders. Sansa approached her silently and sat by her side.

Arya was looking down at Needle, the blade resting in her hands. She seemed completelly lost in her own thoughts, but Sansa was able to detect a deep sadness in the younger Stark's grey eyes. She sighed and took a strand of hair away from Arya's face.

"What's wrong, Arya?" she asked softly. She really wanted her sister to open up to her and trust her. She wanted to help her, just like Arya had helped her in the past.

Arya wasn't sure if she was in the mood to be talked to. However, she couldn't tell Sansa to leave. Right now Sansa was the only person that Arya wanted to be there with her.

"I hate him" Arya muttered. Her voice was soft, but full of anger. She was almost holding up a sob. "I trusted him, but he keeps betraying me."

"Gendry?"

Arya nodded.

"How has he betrayed you before?"

"When we were travelling together, and Beric Dondarrion found us... He was going to take me back to Mother and Robb, but Gendry decided to stay with them. He said that he wanted a family, and apparently, I couldn't be his family" Arya's anger kept increasing in her voice, and Sansa was glad that there wasn't anyone else in the room with them, or she feared that Arya might stab them with Needle. "I'm so happy that they betrayed and sold him instead! He deserved it!"

"Arya..."

"That bastard!"

Of course, Arya wasn't referring to Gendry's birth, but insulting him. Sansa couldn't help herself and she slightly smiled when she saw her sister like that. Arya saw her and stared at her with a hurt expression.

"Do you think that this is funny?!"

"No! No, of course I don't, but... Arya, Gendry was so worried about you. I promise, he couldn't hold still while we all awaited your return..."

"That does not fix it!" Arya exploded. "If he was so worried, why didn't he come with me?!"

"Some men are like that..."

"He doesn't care about me!"

"I'm sure he does..."

"He left me!"

"Sandor left me once too" Sansa said then. "The night of the Battle of the Blackwater. He left the city and I stayed behind."

"Because you wanted to! And he came back for you ten minutes later!" arya protested. Her sister could not compare their stories, she could not! Sandor had never given up on Sansa, whereas Gendry... Gendry took every opportunity that he had to screw everything up!

_That stupid bull!_

Why was she even so mad? That's what made her more angry of all things, the fact that she felt so incredibly furious, and the fact that she could not stop her chest from hurting. Why? _Why, why, **why?!**_ It was all so frustrating!

"Every person is different" Sansa reminded her sister, not really knowing how to calm her down. Sometimes Arya was like a furious volcano about to explode. "Some people are better at some things, and some are very bad. Gendry, for example, is very bad at making choices. But he is very good at the time of choosing people that he cares about."

"What?" Arya was confused. "What in seven hells are you talking about?"

"Gendry cares about you."

"He does not. He's just an idiot."

Sansa sighed. She knew her younger sister and she knew that she was stubborn, so the older Stark didn't try to convince Arya of the contrary. But she could not shut down her curiosity.

"Do you care about him?"

"I don't" Arya replied way too quickly, she only realized it after the words had already escaped her mouth. She felt her face turn poker red and hot. She looked away from her sister, but it was too late now.

"You do."

"I don't!"

"Admit it. Not even just a little bit?"

Arya sighed, giving up. Sansa always told her all her secrets anyways.

"Okay, a little, maybe" she had to admit. Her face was still red and hot because of the embarrasment. "But he doesn't deserve that I care about him even a little, so don't try to change my mind. I won't forgive him."

"I'm not telling you to do that" Sansa said, shaking her head. She reached her hand out and took Arya's hand. "But being resentful is not going to do any good to you."

"That's funny, coming from you. You are resentful towards the Lannisters."

"I'm not resentful towards the Lannisters" Sansa said. Her voice was soft, but it sent chills down Arya's spine. "I _hate_ the Lannisters. They killed my family."

Sansa was right. Arya shouldn't have acussed her before. She hated the Lannisters as well, she hated them more than anything.

"I'm not going to forgive Gendry" she whispered then, looking down to the floor. "He hurt me. Not physically, but he might as well have done it."

"I understand" her sister said. She really did uderstand. Then the corners of her mouth curled up in a soft smile. "Who is that man? The one that you came with..."

"Jaqen?" Arya almost laughed. "He's a friend. The one that I told you about, he helped us escape from Harrenhal..."

Sansa's blue eyes widened.

"That's him? That's the Faceless Man?!"

"Yes, why?"

"He's handsome!"

Arya did laugh this time. "You think so?"

"Yes!"

"He's old."

Sansa frowned. "He's not! He appears to be of Sandor's age."

"Yeah, that's what I mean. He's old."

Sansa hit her sister in the leg, pretending to be offended, but then she laughed and Arya laughed too, forgetting all about her sadness for a moment.

"Don't ever tell Sandor that you think he's old."

"But he is!"

"He is not!" Sansa insisted. "He's thirty and two! That's not old at all!"

Arya rolled her eyes, choosing not to argue against her sister about that. After all, Sandor was Sansa's husband and also he had helped and protected Arya many times, he was her friend, it wouldn't be very nice to be calling him old behind his back.

"How come did Jaqen know that you were going to the Twins?" Sansa asked then, confused.

Arya shrugged. "He says he's been watching over me since I got back to Braavos, making sure I was alright... I have no clue why he would bother with that in the first place, but..."

"He fancies you" Sansa said, grinning mischievously. Arya sighed and rolled her eyes again. Of course, Sansa always thought that everybody fancied everybody! She had grown up a lot and she had matured a she had become the strongest woman that Arya had ever known, but she still loved all stories of romance, and proposed a new romance whenever she had the chance to. She always said that love was the cure to all evil.

"He does not..."

"He does. The way he was looking at you..."

"We are friends" Arya protested. "And he can't fancy me, I'm only ten and four!"

"Arya, have you taken a look at yourself? You are a woman now, and men notice it. Believe me, I should know! At your age, I already had a son!" Sansa exclaimed.

"Yes, but because Sandor is a sick old dog!" Arya replied, obviously joking. Sansa's jaw dropped, and she picked up a pillow from the bed, hitting Arya in the face with it. Arya just stood there stunned, and then both Stark girls burst into laughing.

Arya felt stupid and like most girls, feeling wounded because of the betrayal of a boy, and talking about men with her sister and laughing. Arya never did that, Arya wasn't like most girls. But she guessed that she couldn't be all that tough at all times. She was hurt and she needed some relief from that unexplainable pain that she was feeling in her chest, and Sansa was helping her get it. So she didn't stop laughing. She laughed until her lungs and ribs and belly hurt from laughing so much, and tears came to her eyes.

Sansa was te first one to stop laughing, though she was still smiling at her younger sister.

"Come, you need to take a bath and change clothes. We are gonna have a feast in honor of your victory at the Twins" she said taking her sister's hand in hers and making her stand up from the bed. Arya didn't protest at any moment.

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Some hours later, Arya was bathed (which felt so good after so many days!) and she had allowed her sister to put her into a beautiful blue silk dress with silver embroidery, and her hair was loose over her shoulders and covering her back in a cascade of long curls. Arya had never thought of herself as beautiful, until now. No one could deny it anymore.

She followed Sansa (who was dressed in a beautiful green dress) into the great hall, were the food was already served, the music was loud, and the people were feasting. Arya watched her sister go towards her husband and plant a kiss on his lips, and she turned her head around to watch everyone else. Jon was with Ygritte, as always, and Bran and Rickon were talking. She started walking to meet them at the table, as she had nothing else to do, but someone stepped in her way. She stopped and looked up at the person in front of her, and her gaze met familiar blue eyes. She frowned immediatly, anger filling her up.

"Get out of my way" she hissed.

"Arya, you need to listen to me..."

"No, I don't. I don't need to listen to you, I don't have to listen at you, and most importantly, I don't want to listen to you. I can't even stand looking at you right now" she spat.

She had never seen anyone's face look so shocked or sad. Incredibly sad, not just a little bit sad. Gendry couldn't have appeared to be more wounded even if he had been stabbed with a sword through the heart. But still, he did not move away.

"Arya... Please..." he was begging now.

Arya slowly shook her head from side to side. "No, Gendry. Admit it. You have lost me."

She felt a hand on her shoulder then, and she saw Gendry tense. She turned her head around enough to see that the hand belonged to Jaqen, now changed into more gallant red clothes that made him look like the perfect noblemen that girls all around the world would whisper for. He was giving Gendry a sharp look.

"Is everything alright here?" he asked with his ever-calm and heavy accented voice. Gendry clenched his jaw.

"It is none of your business..."

"Didn't a man make himself clear earlier?" Jaqen suddenly hissed, taking a menacing step past Arya and towards Gendry while glarig at him. Arya had no idea what Jaqen and Gendry had talked about earlier, but suddenly Gendry's face was all red. Wether from shame of fury, she did not know.

Apparently pleased by Gendry's reaction, Jaqen stepped back and away from them, but he didn't go far away. Arya stared at Gendry: she could see the swollen veins in his neck because of how furious he was.

"What did he do to you?" he asked then, in such a low voice that Arya did not hear what he said. She did hear, however, the anger and poison in his words. "What happened while you were away with him?"

"What?"

"Did he become your lover while you were on and about killing Freys in the Riverlands?"

Arya's eyes became as wide ad plates, and her jaw dropped. She could not believe what she was hearing. How did he dare to...?! She blushed so badly that she feared her face was not distinguishable from a tomato.

"_**NO**_!" she exclaimed in a high-pitched voice that didn't seem her own. Gendry looked like he didn't believe it.

"No? You didn't do anything with him?"

Her words stuck in her throat. She really couldn't believe what she was hearing. With what right did Gendry come to her with such questions?!

Her hands turned to fists at her sides. She wanted so badly to punch Gendry's face for a second time that day...

"Why would I do anything with him? I thought it was you!"

Her words inflicted him more pain than any punch could ever have. Just looking at his pale face and incredibly wide eyes right then, Arya felt inmensibly proud of herself.

Then she sighed, tired of that situation. She wanted to have a peaceful night, and she did not want to see Gendry anymore. She turned around and walked away. Gendry didn't follow her, too stunned to even move, while Jaqen joined her again. Arya could feel the weight of Gendry's stare on their backs.

"I do not need you to come to my rescue" she hissed to Jaqen, who was very close to her. The man only smiled, apparently amused.

"A man knows. A girl does not need saving, never. But that boy seems to need to be reminded that he has no rights over a girl anymore."

"No one has any right over me, never" Arya said, glarig at Jaqen. "I'm the only one who has any right over myself."

Jaqen raised an eyebrow, impresed.

"A girl has a sharp tongue and a strong will, unlike most of the ladies here at Westeros..." he commented, and they kept walking in silence. Arya was walking towards the main table again, while Jaqen simply seemed to be following her. Well, it was normal, since he was new at that place and he was there because of her, thus making him her guest. Jaqen decided to break the silence (though it wasn't a great silence, with the music and laugher all around them). "Tell me, lovely girl. Are you planning in ever forgiving that young fool?"

"No" she said without even giving it a second thought.

"Was his wrongdoing such a big offense to the lovely girl?"

"He betrayed a friend. Is there a greater offense?"

"Well... maybe the foolish boy had reasons?"

Arya shit him a suspicious look. "Are you trying to get me to forgive him or something?"

Jaqen snorted after hearing that, and actually laughed with cold amusement. "Gods forbid it, no, a man is certainly not trying to do anything like that... A man is just curious about what triggered this situation."

"Well, he had no reasons to betray me" Aya sneered, narrowing her grey eyes. "Only cowardice. And dishonor."

"A girl talks about dishonor? But there is not a bit of honor in a girl. If a man remembers correctly, a girl used her friend in the most despicable way to get what she wanted" after saying that, he grabbed Arya's arm without harming her and he pulled her towards him, making her turn around and narrow the distance between them. Arya almost tripped, but she kept her balance by pressing her hands against Jaqen's chest, and her eyes were locked on his. Those piercing bluish grey eyes seemed to be digging into her very soul. "Doesn't a girl remember? A man does."

Arya studied his expression while the images of that day rushed into her mind. She remembered, she remembered it very well... She had used Jaqen's promise of taking three lives against him, giving him his own name in order to get him to open her path to freedom. Truth be told, she had never felt guilty about giving Jaqen his own name, and she never would feel bad about it. She did what needed to be done to get her and her... friends... to safety.

"A girl remembers" she nodded. She smiled a small smile, almost sinister, and she toyed with the fingers that were pressed against his chest. "But you are mistaken. A girl was honorable... After all, I unnamed you, didn't I?"

He didn't reply to her words, and she pushed him away with a soft but fast movement of her hands, and she turned away still grinning ad feeling something funny within her tummy. She finally reached the table in which her family was sitting, and she sat down in the spot reserved for her, at Bran's right. She was occupying the place of honor that night, because it was her night. She had earned it.

"To Arya Stark!" everyone roared with their cups high in the air. "The avenger of the North!"

The avenger of the North... That's how everyone was calling her because she had killed Lord Walder Frey, the man that betrayed the King in the North, Robb Stark. But she didn't feel like an avenger. She had killed only one man, and the wound that his betrayal had caused was not yet healed. It would always and forever leave a huge scar in everyone's hearts and in the history of the North.

However, she smilled and accepted to be called like that.

_Let them have an illusion, if I can give it to them_ she thought while drinking from her cup.

Her eyes searched the place, and they met Jaqen's once again. He also had a cup in his hand, and he raised it to her before bringing it to his lips and drinking the wine from it. His eyes never left Arya, and she felt again an uncomfortable sensation in the pit of her stomach. Almost unconsciously, Sansa's words came back to her mind.

_"He's handsome."_

Arya couldn't deny it, he was. He was tall, well built, and the features of his face were both soft and piercing. His mouth almost constantly twisted in a mockery smile was attractive, and his grey eyes were cold and... dangerous. Powerful.

_It's not even his real face, Arya_ she reminded herself then, and she felt dissapointed. She set her cup down on the table and broke off eye contact with the man. But doing that, her eyes met Gendry's.

Again, that feeling of rage took over her, but she didn't look away. Gendry had retreated into the back of the room, where is was dark and more quiet, and he was obverving her with his back against the wall and his arms crossed over his chest. He seemed... defiant. Defiant and ashamed all at once. And angry. Definitely angry.

Arya felt so frustrated. Why couldn't she ever tell what was going through his mind?! She couldn't understand him. Why was he angry at her for the treatment that she was giving him?! Didn't he realize that she was acting like this because of him, that it wa all his fault? No, apparently he couldn't see that, he was too stupid. He was the one that had acted wrongly...

She had to admit she was sad. She missed those days in the past months in which she had been incredibly happy, spending almost everyday with Gendry and daring anyone to say that the friendship of a lady with a bastard smith was not proper. She would have kicked anyone who dared to say that. She would have done anything for Gendry back then... Because that's what friends were supposed to do, right?

She remembered how happy she had been the day that he discovered that he was alive, the night of her sister's wedding. She had beloved him dead since the moment that the Red Woman took him away, and she had mourned him. She had been completelly willing to forget that he had not wanted to be with her before they took him away, because the joy of having him next to her again was greater than anything else. The lone memory of the night that she spent with him jn his bed the night that he appeared in Winterfell made her feel pain.

How could she forgive him now, just because he said he was sorry? She couldn't trust him anymore!

Her eyes stung, and she was afraid that she would cry. She didn't want Gendry to see her cry, so she quit staring at him. She drained her cup of wine before letting it down in the table, and she stood up from the chair.

"I need some air" she excused herself before dissapearing away from the room walking through the back door. She walked and didn't look back until she could no longer hear the music, or the signif or the laugher or the ceaseless talking. Only when she was sumerged in complete silence in the middle of one of Winterfell's dark halls did she stop, and she let her emotions to be set free, and they did so in the form of a loud sob.

_Stupid, stupid, stupid!_ she kept shoutig in her mind, though she didn't know who she was insultig anymore. Gendry, or herself? Who knew, maybe both.

_I could kick him out_ she thought then. _Bran wouldn't let him stay here for een one more minute if you wished him gone._

She shook her head. No, she would not kick Gendey out of Winterfell. _Let him stay. Let him see me everyday and realize what a stupid boy he is. Let him see what he has lost._

Yes, that would do. She would torture him with her constant presence and indiference.

Managing to put a small back on her face, she took a deep breath and returned to the feast.

* * *

"_Why would I do anything with him? I thought he was you?!_"

The moment that Arya had said those words, he had wanted to die. Why? Because he felt like a complete worthless shit. Those words had been her ultimate statement that she had no desire for him, no feelings at all. And why would she?! It wa obvious, she was a Lady, a Princess in the North! But him? He was just some bastard born and raised in Flea Bottom...

Of course, he could be more if he wanted. If he revealed the truth. It happened to Arya's cousin, didn't it? He went from being a Snow to being a Targaryen! The same could happen to Gendry, he could get rid of his bastard surname Waters, maybe... But then he would have to tell all the truth. He would have to tell hiw he found out, and he wasn't a great liar. The truth of what happened in Dragonstone, and he had no desire for such thing. Every time he remembered that day, he felt sick to his stomach, he wanted to truth up. No, it was better to stay silent.

At that moment, he was burning up with rage. Arya's words had opened a whole inside his chest, and he could think of no way of healing it again. What was worse, he saw her walking away side by side with that arrogant foreigner man, Jaqen H'ghar... Few times had Gendry despised someone so much in his entire life. Watching the man talking with her girl that he loved while she turned her back in him was a worse torture that he could ever imagine.

Because he did love Arya. Seven bloody hells, Gendry loved her more than anything! He had only realized it way too late, and now he had messed everything up. He had to admit it, he was terrible at the time of dealing with stressful situations. He was weak, while Arya was string. Arya could face her fears, and Gendry hadn't been able to accompany her to the Twins in fear of facing his own fears... Damn it, he couldn't even tell the truth about why he hadn't wanted to go there in the first place!

He watched them with resentfulness the entire time. However, when Arya practically ran away from the place, he wanted to follow. Sansa Stark stopped him.

"You need to give her space" the girl told him. She wasn't mad at him or anything, her voice was very calm. She was just giving Gendry a piece of advice, she knew her sister well. "She needs time."

"She hates me, doesn't she?" he asked resigned. "She wants me to leave."

"No, but she is angry" Sansa said. "Just let her be mad for a few days, and then try to talk to her. Go step by step, don't get her even angrier. She's boiling with anger, and it will all just explode in your face if you try to push things. Let her be, for now."

"_He_ won't be leaving her alone" Gendry hissed, pointing towards Jaqen with a movement of his head. Sansa sighed.

"Right now, he's her friend. You need to regain her trust. Stop worrying about that man and focus on being a person worthy of my sister."

Gendry clenched his jaw and thought about it. Yes, maybe Sansa was right. He needed to be a better person for Arya. A man worthy of her wouldn't have let her go in that journey alone.

That's when he saw Arya returning to the great hall and sitting back at the table. A big smile decorated her face, and her his eyes met hers, he just saw indifference there.

He sighed inwardly. He felt that there was a long way ahead of him before Arya even spoke another word to him.


	8. Chapter 8

**Hello people! I want to say is that I'm mainly a Gendrya shipper, but Jaqen/Arya shippers deserve some love and joy too ;) Don't you all think so?**

* * *

The week had passed quickly and without any incidents. There was peace and quiet in Winterfell, but everyone was a little sad. The reason was that Sandor and Sansa were finally going to move to the Dreadfort, to rule that castle as lord and lady after the fall of the Boltons. Sansa was happy because she was starting a new life away with her husband, but she was also sad because she didn't want to say goodbye to her siblings.

Arya had no idea wether if she was going with then, or staying. Winterfell was home for her, it had always been, and she had wanted so badly to rerun to it fir such a long time! But she didn't want to say goodbye to Sansa, no more than she wanted to say good bye to Bran or Rickon or Jon.

Jon was leaving in a day. He and Ygritte had only come to Winterfell for Sansa's wedding to Sandor, and they had been constantly postponing the day of going back home to Dragonstone. They couldn't do that anymore, they needed to be back there. A castle can not be left alone unprotected for long without its lord and lady. Arya wanted to go with them, she had never seen Dragonstone, but they had told her that it would have to be another time and that they would take her with then the next time that they came visiting.

Arya hated goodbyes. She hadn't minded them when she was younger, but after the war, it hurt to be separated from her family. Having to choose between leaving Winterfell or going to the Deeadfort with Sandor and Sansa was stressing her, and she decided to forget that stress and relax with a hot bath. Maybe the warm water would help her make a decision.

The streams of hot water that came from the earth underneath Winterfell and went through its walls and kept the castle warm also served to provide water for the baths. Arya's maids filled her bathtub with the steaming water and left her alone at her command. Once they closed the doer behind them, Arya started getting rid of her clothes and she tossed carelessly them on the floor, and then she enered the hot bathtub, sinking into the water. Its warmth immediatly relaxed her muscles, which were also sore from training with the men in the courtyard, and it felt good. Her head rested on the tub, and she closed her eyes, allowing hersel to doze off for a little bit. Her wet dark hair was floating around her.

Arya was almost falling asleep when she ears someone knocking on the door three times. Se opened only one eye an stare at the door, having no idea who it might be. It could be her maids, or her sister, or one of her brothers maybe. It could not be Gendry, for she hadn't spoken to him dueing the entire week, and he hadn't tried to approach her either. Arya didn't know if that satisfied or angered her.

"Who is it?" she said, closing her eyes again.

No one answered. Instead, she heard the door opening and closing again, and careful, slow steps. A man's steps. She felt uneasy and observed, and she opened her eyes again. She almost jumped off the bathtub, startled.

It was Jaqen, who had entered her room univited and was now watching her inside the bathtub. Not that he could see anything, beside Arya's long dark hair was covering her womanly body.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, but she was not angered like any other woman would have been. She had just been startled at first, nothing else. Still, she could not ignore the fact that there was a grown man watching her naked inside a bathtub in her room.

"A girl must not worry about a man" Jaqen said, obviously knowing what she wad thinking. "A man is not going to hurt a girl."

"Yet a man must know how unapropiate it is to watch a girl while she bathes" Arya pointed out. Jaqen smiled.

"Since when does a girl care about what's proper?"

Fair enough. She didn't. Really, she couldn't care less that Jaqen was there in her room. She relaxed again under the water, and started toting with her leg and foot, splashing a little bit.

"You haven't answered me" she said, no longer looking at Jaqen in the eye. "What are you doing here?"

"A man wanted to talk to a girl. A man wanted to know what had a girl decided. To leave, or to stay?"

"I don't know what I'm going to do" she admitted, raising her knee above the water. "Why do you want to know?"

"So that a man can make plans."

"Plans for what?"

"A man needs to decide what to do with his life too. A man needs to decide if he is going back to Braavos or if he is lingering in Westeros for a while longer."

"You want to stay?" Arya was surprised by that, but she didn't want Jaqen to leave yet, not really. She had just realized that.

Jaqen shrugged. "A man likes it here. He enjoys the company of a girl. A girl that is going to get wrinkles like a crone if she lingers in the wanted any longer."

He was right, and the water had starte to get colder, though it was still warm and enjoyable. Arya looked around to search for the sponge. She sighed; she had left it on the stool. She reached for it with her arm, but she couldn't get a hold of it.

"Jaqen, could you please...?"

But Jaqen had already walke over towards the stool and he grabbed the sponge. Arya muttered a soft "_thanks_" and reached her hand out to take te sponge from Jaqen, but he didn't give it to her. Se frowned when he kneeled behind the bathtub, right behind her. She shot jim a puzzles look.

"Jaqen, what are you doing...?"

"A girl is tired. A girl needs to relax. Maybe a man can help?"

"I-I don't think that's-"

"A girl has nothing to worry about" he repeated, and his deep eyes stared back at her with such intensity that she felt she was shaking. "Or doesn't a girl trust a man?"

"I do trust you" she said, and it was true. Jaqen had watched over her for such a long time and made sure she was alright even though she didn't know it at the time, it was unlikely that he was going to do anything bad to her now. She turned her head around and let it rest again on the tub, and she closed her eyes. Her arms rested on the side of the bathtub, and she let out a long sigh.

She shivered when the sponge, guided by Jaqen's hand, touched the skin of her neck. Jaqen had previously sumerged it in the water, so it was warm and wet, and he gently scrubbed Arya's skin with it. He moved it over bith her arm and then down to her tummy, under the water.

_If my sibling or Jon find out..._ she starte thinking, but then she stopped, realizing something. Jon had been north of the Wall doing the Gods knew what with Ygritte; Sansa had been doing such extremelly unproper things with Sandor that she ended up pregnant; and Rickon was too young to even be escandalized by anything. The only problem could be Bran, but he knew Arya well enough to know that would do whateer he wanted.

And right now, she was really enjoying the fact that Jaquen H'ghar was giving her a bath.

Her lips curled up in a small smile, and Jaqen noticed.

"Is a girl enjoying herself?" he almost chucked, which was funny coming from Jaqen, the dangerous assassin.

"A man could say so, yes."

It was true, she was loving the fact that she could just relax and get a good bath without even having to lift a finger. So what if Jaqen was a man? Arya didn't feel embarrassed at all. Her hair covered her breasts, and her legs were crossed so her womanly parts were not exposed. And anyways, she very much doubted that a man like Jaqen would feel interest in...

"Oh!" she suddenly moaned. Yes, she moaned. Because Jaqen had passed the sponge painfully slowly over her left breast. She stirred in the water, and she opened her eyes just a bit. "Jaqen...?"

"Shh..." he hushed her. "A girl must not be afraid."

She wasn't. She was confused. Very confused. But again, she relaxed, and though she did not want to, she couldn;t help but moan softly when she sponge brushed her breast again this time going in the opposite direction. The sponge had moved her hair out of the way, and know her breast was fully exposed, and her nipples hardened. Not only that, but she also felt an ache in her womanly parts.

She heard Jaqen's voice again very close to her ear.

"A girl has become very beautiful..." he was saying in an incredibly soft and deep voice, almost like a cat's purr. "A girl is no longer a girl, but a woman instead..."

He moved the sponge down to her waist, while his left hand entered the bathtub and touched the skin of her side, making Arya shiver again.

_What is happening to me?_

She didn't know, but whatever it was, it felt really good. She didn't want to stop Jaqen's wandering hand, however awkward it seemed. The man's hand travelled up the side of her body, sending sparks all over her nerves, and then his fingers gently brushed the sensitive skin of her exposed breast...

...at the same time that the hand that held the sponge reached inside her thighs, where the place between her legs was pulsing furiously.

Practically without realizing it, Arya moaned even louder than before and her back arched, raising her upper bod out of the water.

* * *

"Have you seen Lady Arya anywhere?" Gendry asked one of Winterfell's servants, who was the first person that he encountered in the hallways.

"Lady Arya is in her chambers" the servant said. Gendry started heading there without even blinking.

He needed to see Arya, he needed to see her _now_. He hadn't had the courage before, but there was something that he needed to tell her. He had been about to do so the grist day that he set foot in Winterfell, but he had been too much of a coward. He needed to stop that, and tell her the truth. She thought he hadn't gone with her to the Twins because he had betrayed her, because he didn't care about her. Lies! It was time that Arya knew the real reasons.

It was all because of that Red Woman and what she had done years ago. That was the real reason, it was all his fault. His fault only... He felt like shit everytime that he looked at Arya precisely for that.

He knew where her room was, it was next to the room where he had stayed the frat night that be was there. Arya had fallen asleep in his arms, and it had been perfect. He had never felt better in his life, and he wished he could go back to that day and make different decisions. He wanted to do everything right.

He hoped it wasn't already too late to try to at least make the right decisions now.

* * *

Arya quickly grabbed Jaqen's arm, stopping it's movement. Her eyes were wide open.

"What- what are you doing?"

Jaqen had his eyebrows raised.

"Don't be afraid, lovely girl."

"I'm not afraid!" she wasn't, but all that was just so strange. What was happening! Why was Jaqen behaving that way! Arya had heard that men did things like that to please woman, but who would want to please her?! And specially Jaqen?

"Then relax, and a man will do the rest."

She did as told, because she was loving the strange sensations that Jaqen's touch was giving her, and judging by Jaqen's expression, he was enjoying doing that. So she closed her eyes, and Jaqen's left hand squeezed her breast, while the fingers on his right hand caressed her between her legs. Arya didn't understand, why was that so pleasuring?!

"Seven bloody-"

"Does a girl want a piece of advice from a man?" Jaqen whispered in her ear.

"Yes..."

"A lovely girl must never let her guard down. Bad things could happen."

Before she could ask what that meant, Jaqen's right hand raised from the water and abandoned the bathtub, and a second later she felt the cold bite of steel on her neck. She opened her eyes. There was a dagger pressing against her skin.

* * *

Yes, he would tell Arya the truth, and she would understand him and everything would go back to the things they were before. Or not, maybe shecould hate him and think he wasseven a bigger coward. Who cared?! Yes, he cared, the thought that Arya would hate him forever was killing him, but she deserved to know the truth! She needed to know his secret!

It was now or never.

He finally reached the hallway in which her room was. He could see the closed door. He took a deep breath, he was ready.

He approached the door...

* * *

_I knew there was something going on here_ she though bitterly, unable to move.

"What are you doing?" she hissed. Her voice was shaky, both beause she was angry, and because pleasure was still lingering in that sensitive spot. Besides, Jaqen's hand was still on her breast.

"A man is teaching a girl a lesson" he simply said. "A man has no intention of harming a girl, but a girl could get in trouble with someone else."

She hit the water with her hand, splashing Jaqen full in the face, soaking him. Some water got in his eyes, so he pulled away from her and he took the knife away from her face, moment that she used to get out of the bathtub and to take Jaqen's knife away from his hand. He pointed at him with it, and looked at him defiantly.

"Maybe they will be the ones that get in trouble with me" she muttered.

Jaqen smiled, which made Arya realize that he was going to make a move. She was right; he grabbed the arm with which she held the knife, so she let go of it and the weapon fell to the floor. She pushed Jaqen with her free hand and he hit the bed with the back of his legs. He pulled Arya with him and turned around, so Arya ended up lying on her back on te bed, with Jaqen on too of her. Almost before even realizing this, she slammed her knee between his legs, and his face twisted with pain. Arya used the distraction to roll over, so Jaqen ended up with his back on the bed, and Arya was on top of him, victorious.

"See?" she said, breathless. "It is a man that could get in trouble, not a girl..."

Their faces were terribly close, merely inches apart, and their eyes were fixed on each other's. Arya started feeling funny again, because she had just realized what their situation was. Jaqen was lying on his back on her bed, and she was on top of him, with her legs at his sides, and she was completelly naked. Jaqen was wearing normal clothes, breeches and a tunic, and she could feel him under the thin layers.

Her face turned dark red with embarrassment when she realized that what she was feeling directly underneath her (because she was sitting right on it) was his manhood. And it was hard. Very hard.

She turned an even darker shade of red, but she didn't take her eyes away from Jaqen's, which were filled with... Was that lust? No, it couldn't be. It definitelly wasn't.

She tried to move away, but Jaqen's arms moved quickly and he out them around her, pulling her closer and pressing her body completelly against his. Arya felt her face burning.

She looked down at his lips. They were so close. Her own lips almost touched his...

... The door opened suddenly, and Arya turned her face towards the door, startled. She thought that she would have to start making up a excuse for her intimate position with Jaqen to her family, and she was about to start speaking when suddendly she froze. Much to her horror, it wasn't her family on the door.

It was Gendry.

The boy looked shocked at first. Then angered, furious, scary. Then he just looked like he had been sent to the Seventh Hell. It wasn't pain, or sadness in his eyes. It was missery what had installed itself in them.

"Gendry..." Arya started saying. Gendry just shook his head, muttering sinethig under his breath, and then slammed the door shut.

Arya and Jaqen were left alone again in complete silence. A few seconds that seemed like an eternity passed before Arya was able to react.

"_Gendry_!" she exclaimed, but it sounded more like a cry.

She pushed herself away from Jaqen and raced to put some ckothes on her. She forgot about the smallclothes, pulling a pair of breeches (she usually wore those instead of dresses) and throwing a tunic over herself. She ran towards the door.

"Lovely girl..."

"Shut up" she snapped as she opened the door and ran into the hallway, chasing after Gendry.


	9. Chapter 9

**Hello! First of all, thank all of you for your great reviews! :D Now, I've noticed that there are both Gendrya shippers and Jaqen/Arya shippers here... Things might get complicated, but I hope that in the end we'll all have our fair share of drama and romance and sexy times for our favorite couple of choice! **

**And now, let's go on with our daily dosis of stupid Gendry! Because no matter how much time passes, he'll always be a stupid bull-headed fool! (L) **

* * *

He stormed out of the castle and ran to his smithy, which was at a side of the courtyard. He felt ad if his entire body was on fire, burning with the immense rage that he felt. He couldn't understand why he wanted to break through the skin in his chest with his hand and tear his heart out. Maybe it was to stop the pain.

He couldn't get the image out of his head. Arya, naked in all of her glory, on top of Jaqen H'ghar in her bed. It was something that he should not have seen, something that he did not _**want**_ to see. If what Arya had wanted was to punish him, she had suceeded. She had, at last and for all, destroyed him.

Gendry grabbed the hammer and started hitting a sword that he was making and that rested in the anvil with all the strenght of his arm. It was the only way that he could think of to liberate his fury without harming anybody. If any man got in his way at that moment, he would hit the poor fool.

The hammer kept beating the sword until the steel was all ruined. Even when the sword broke, Gendry kept bringing the hammer down, and he screamed. He didn't know why he screamed, he just needed to. His face was covered in sweat, and the muscles in his armed hurt.

He threw the hammer away against a barrel with such force that the wood of the barrel broke, spilling water all over the place, but he didn't care. He buried his hands in his hair, pulling at it, and he closed his eyes. His mind was immediatly filled with the torturous image that he was so desperatedly trying to forget.

Just in how many ways was that girl going to tear his heart out?

He wanted to go back, interrupt them again dying whatever the fuck they were doing at that moment, and just start hitting Jaqen H'ghar face the same way that his hammer hit the swords that he forged.

"Gendry?"

He opened his eyes and turned around. Aeya wad in the entrance of the smithy, looking at him with a worried expression on her face. She was wearing the men's clothes that she liked to wear when she disn't have to dress like a girl, and her hair was all wet and tangled, falling around her face.

The instant that he saw her, Gendry knew that he wasn't angry at her. He was furious, yes, but he could never be furious with her. How could he hate such a small, beautiful and precious thig ad she was to him? No, he was furious with Jaqen H'ghar, not with Arya. Not with Arya...

But he couldn't let her see that. He couldn't let her see that all that would take would be a single word from her, a single movement of her fingers, and se would crush him.

So he stared at her with eyes as cold as ice, and an expression as hard as stone.

"I'm sorry, m'lady" he said bitterly. "I did not mean to interrupt your... _**activities**_."

"You didn't interrupt anything" Arya said, and she sounded confused. Gendry scoffed.

"I'm sure that Jaqen H'ghar would disagree with that."

"Gendry-"

"Why did you come, m'lady? Surely you have more important things to do."

"Gendry, listen to me! What you think you saw, it was nothing! He tripped and I fell over him, nothing else!"

Gendry was shocked. Did she really expect him to believe that?! Did she really think he was that stupid! He was many things, he was a fool, but he wasn't an idiot. They hadn't _'**tripped**'_. But what shocked even more was that Arya had actually chased after him to try to explain to him (by lying) what had happened. Arya hadn't spoken to him in a _week_, she had said that she _hated_ him and didn't want to be near him ever again, and yet there she was. The lady was breaking her promise and she was trying to explain herself to the worthless bastard.

"Even if that was true, what was that man doing in your chambers while you were **_naked_**, m'lady?" he asked, clenching his jaw. He didn't realize that the water that had fallen off the barrel that he broke had already reached him and was soaking his boots.

Arya opened her mouth, but no words came off it. Instead, her face turned a deep shade of red, either because it had just sinked in to her that Gendry had seen her naked and she was extremely embarrassed, or because she wasn't telling all the truth, just as he believed.

"It is... not your bussines what he was doing there" she finally said, looking away from him, feeling uncomfortable, and she swallowed hard.

Gendry narrowed his eyes. "So I thought" he turned around and looked at the broken sword that rested on the anvil, and cursed under his breath. He would have to melt the steel again and make a new sword, giving him even more work than he already had. "If that isn't my bussines, then none of it is. You don't have to follow me here to lie and make up fake excuses. I won't say a word to your family or anyone else about your lover."

"Seven hells,**_ stop it_**, Gendry!" Arya yelled, frustrated. He turned around to face her again, surprised by her sudden fit of anger and frustration. Arya was shooting daggers at him through her grey eyes. "Jaqen is **_not_** my lover! It was an accident! And yes, none of it is your bussines, but I wanted you to know anyways!"

"Well, I already know" he muttered. "Now you can go back to ignoring me and hating me."

She seemed indignant with the comment.

"I'm mad at you because you lied to me and said that you would go anywhere with me!"

"Yes, but not to see you killed! I couldn't bear that, Arya, don't you understand?!" he exclaimed, just as frustrated as she was, or even more.

"If I had been in danger of death, you could have protected me if you had been _**there**_, with **_me_**!" Arya shot back at him. "But you **_weren't_** there. You are a coward."

She turned around to leave, and Gendry watched her back as she moved towards the door of the smithy. He bit down on his lip so hard that he could taste blood, while he tried to decide... After all, he went to her room to tell her the truth, and in the end he didn't because of that twice-damned scene that he had seen. So now that he had the chance, he might as well just get it over with. He needed the truth to get out of his body and stop blackening his heart.

"Yes, I am a coward" he admitted. His voice didn't sound as strong as he had expected, but Arya heard the words anyways and stopped walking to look at him again. "And you are right, I could have protected you if I had been there with you. In fact, I didn't really lie, Arya, I would follow you anywhere. To the end of the world and to the Seventh Hell if necessary. I travelled all the way from Dorne to this place to be with you... But the Twins... The Twins appear in my nightmares every night, Arya... Every night since the Red Wedding..."

"That's stupid" Arya muttered. "Why would you have nightmares about the Red Wedding? You weren't there, you didn't know anyone who was there! You have never even been at the Twins!"

Gendry didn't respond right away. He needed to tell her the truth, and he would tell it to her from the beginning, so that she could understand.

"Remember the day that the Red Priestess came and took me away?" he asked softly.

There was a moment of silence. Then, slowly, Arya nodded her head.

"I tried to stop them..." she whispered. Her voice shook a little.

"I know you did" he said. He had seen Arya trying to pull the guards away from him, but they were too many, too big and too strong for the little girl that she had been at that moment. And no one could fight against Melissandre of Asshai. "She needed me, you know? Not any other person or bastard boy, she needed _**me**_."

Arya actually looked skeptic after he said that. No wonder, even Gendry himself knew that what he said sounded ridiculous! However, that didn't stop it from being the truth. Arya crossed her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow while she looked at him.

"Oh, really? She _**needed**_ you?" she asked mockingly, though there was also a trace of bitterness in her face and voice. "For what, keeping her bed warm at night?"

Gendry felt like a hand had smacked him full in the face. He thought that his ears were trying to fool him, but no! Arya had actually said that! Recalling that... -well, that **_even__t_**- filled his mind with unpleasant memories, and he felt disgusted. He quickly shook his head, and Arya's eyebrow raised even higher than before.

"Oh, come on, Gendry, you couldn't really believe that I wouldn't guess at some point, right? I'm not a child anymore, in case you haven't noticed. I'm not a fool. I know how men are, I've seen it enough. I even have my brother Robb, and Jon and Sandor Clegane as perfect examples that men can't keep their pants on even if their lives depend on it."

Gendry couldn't deny it, but he had never been more embarrassed in his entire life. Arya was right. It hadn't exactly been as she thought, but he couldn't just start spitting out excuses when he knew that in the end, it didn't matter. He passed his hand over his face, not knowing what to say, and ignoring the intense jealousy that was burning in Arya's grey eyes.

"You don't deny it then?"

He shook his head. "No, Arya, I don't..."

"Then with what right do you dare to reproach me about Jaqen, regardless of the fact that I wasn't doing anything with him?!"

"Because now I know that it's a mistake!" he exclaimed, taking his hand away from his face. "Because I know how much you regret it later! Because I don't want that for you, Arya! I don't want you to make the same mistake!" that was a poor excuse for a reason. The real one was that he was jealous like a mad dog. But he wasn't about to say that out loud.

"You still haven't told me why in Seven Hells that witch needed you" she interrupted him, guiding the conversation away to another subject. Gendry breathed hard. He felt that what was coming was going to be much more difficult to say. He clenched his teeth and closed his hands into fists.

"Because she needed... She needed king's blood" he said. That wasn't the difficult part. It was still a part that he hated, but it wasn't what was giving him nightmares at night. He did not know how to prepare himself for that. While he dreaded that moment, Arya frowned.

"Oh, I remember you saying something like that, the night that you arrived..." she murmured, recalling those moments. "Yeah, but we were interrupted... well, you know why we were interrupted!" she blushed for a second, but she immediately went back to her serious expression. "**_King's_** blood? What do you mean by that? The blood of someone born in King's Landing?"

It would be easy to just nod his head and made her believe that. So simple... but it would be a lie. Gendry shook his head.

"No... The blood of the son of a king" he was looking at the floor while he said that, he was too embarrassed and ashamed. Sure, most would think that being the son of a king was much better than being the bastard of some bloody nameless bugger, but he did not share that opinion. He had never respected king Robert, he had thought him a drunk that was doing nothing for his kingdom. Not only that, but he also left Gendry's mother pregnant and then left her alone to care for a bastard child that he never even met. Gendry was disgusted.

Slowly, he raised his eyes to stare back into Arya's... The was even more confused than before, if that was possible.

"The blood of my father" Gendry finished saying.

Arya's expression changed. It went from confusion to recognition to astonishment and finally to disbelief. She backed away one step.

"Seven hells..." she whispered, her eyes wide with incredulity. Very slowly, she started shaking her head from side to side. "No, it can't be... But it can! How did I not see it before! You are exactly like him!"

Gendry snorted and he felt his blood stir when he heard that. "Like the king? I'm nothing like him. He was a drunkard."

"You are both equally stupid" Arya sneered.

There was a long moment of awkward silence in which they both just stared at each other. Slowly, Arya's amazement disappeared from her face. She had heard so many incredulous things in the past years that it was now very easy for her to accept the fact that Gendry was the former King's bastard son. She shrugged.

"So" she said, breaking the silence "why did that woman need your... king's blood?"

"To do magic" Gendry muttered. That caught Arya's attention, but she don't say anything; she was waiting for him to tell the whole story. Gendry felt that he was starting to get sick. He knew that once he said everything, there was no going back. Once he got the truth out of him, Arya might hate him forever.

_I can't lie to her forever_ a voice inside his head said. _For once in your life, you idiot, grow some balls. Tell her._

_I can't._

_Tell her!_

He took a big, long breath...

"To kill my uncle's enemies. The other kings."

Arya's head made a quick movement, backing away from him. From her expression, he could tell that she was understood what he had just said, but at the same time she didn't understand the _**whole**_ meaning of what he wanted to say. He had hoped that she would figure out everything without the need of making him tell her, because it would be easier. Saying the exact words out loud would be extra pain inflicted in both of them.

"She took some of my blood out with leeches. With three leeches" he said, recalling the painful and shameful event. "Then she threw them to the fire one by one. As she cashed the leeches into the fire, she said three names for each one. Robb Stark. Joffrey Baratheon. Balon Greyjoy." He made a very quit pause to organize his thoughts. He felt his heart beating furiously inside his throat. "I have no idea how Balon Greyjoy died, but I know he did. And Joffrey... well, we all know what happened to him. And... the Red Wedding..."

He heard Arya gasp. He wasn't entirely sure that it was a gasp. It sounded more like a cry... or like a silent scream. When he looked at her, he saw that she had covered her mouth with her hands, silencing herself. Still, her breath was fast and forced, and for a second Gendry was afraid that something bad was happening to her. He tried to take a step towards her, but Arya immediately backed away from him.

"_**Stay away from me**_!" she hissed, and he froze still. Arya wasn't looking at him anymore. She was keeping her eyes away from him, and she raised her hands in front of her to keep him away.

"Arya... Please..."

"_**No**_!" she was screaming now. "Stay away from me! I don't want you to come near me!"

"Arya, I swear I didn't..."

"Do you know what they did to my brother, Gendry?!" she yelled at him. She was mad with grief. Her face was red, and tears were running downher cheeks and soaking them. "I was there, I saw it! You you want to know?! They cut his head off and they sewed his wolf's head in place, and paraded him around to celebrate! And I **_saw_** it, Gendry! And- and now you come here... _**saying that it was because they made magic with your blood?!**_"

He had no idea what to say. _I'm sorry, they tied me to a bed and some leeches sucked my blood and that got your family killed and I had no idea that would happen?_ It sounded pathetic. He wanted the earth to swallow him and make him disappear so that he could stop feeling that shame and guilt. But, more than anything, so that he could stop seeing Arya crying. Few things were so horrible in life, and her sobs were killing him.

_And it's my fault._

Would he ever stop feeling miserable?

"The moment I found out what had happened to your brother... Few times have I felt worse in my life, Arya" he confessed. There was nothing that he could do in that moment, he could only talk. "I didn't care about the other two kings. I wouldn't have given it a second thought if it had been anyone else, either. But it was Robb Stark, your brother... And his wife, and your mother... It was _**your** **family**_, Arya" his voice was barely audible anymore, no more than a whisper. Still,he kept talking. He felt tears stinging in his eyes. "Your family... And it could have been you too, if you hadn't run away! And every time that I close my eyes, I see the leech falling into the fire and Melisandre saying the names. And I see the Twins, and... and I see the massacre in my head! I can see all of them, your brother, your mother... They haunt me, Arya..." he paused, taking a big breath to calm down. He felt like something was stuck inside his chest, and it felt like he was asphyxiating. "I didn't go to the Twins because... Because I was afraid... I was afraid to face their ghosts, my demons. I couldn't, Arya, I just couldn't."

He knew as soon as he said it that there wasn't anyone that was such a coward as he was. He had allowed the girl that meant more than anything else in the world to him to venture on a suicide mission without his support because he hadn't been able to face his fears... Mere ghosts of the past that existed only in his head.

Arya was weeping almost in silence now, and she had slowly backed against a corner of the smithy. Her back hit the wall, and she slid down to the floor. Once her body hit the floor and she was sitting cuddling in the corner, she started sobbing loudly again with her eyes closed and her face twisted with pain.. Gendry could swear that he heard his heart shatter in a thousand pieces. He hurried to kneel by her side, and he took her in his arms. As soon as he did that, Arya tried to pull away from him and she punched him in the chest repeatedly, trying to make him let go of her. But he didn't. Neither did he fight back. He just stood there as Arya punched him with less and less strength as seconds passed by, and he never stopped holding her because he knew that she needed it. She needed to be held and loved, and she needed to get all her pain out of her, because she hadn't done it before. So he allowed her to punch him until she finally stopped and had only the strength left to cry her eyes out. Even then, Gendry did not let go of her, and Arya wasn't trying to get away from him anymore. It was the other way around, actually. Arya threw herself against him and she clung to him as if her life depended on it, and she cried, and cried, and cried... the whole time with Gendry's arms around her, comforting her.

Suddenly she pushed him away, this time using all of her strength, and she finally made him let go of her. Arya stood up on her feet again, and took several quick steps to get away from him.

"You should have been dead" she hissed, and the sound made the hairs of the back of Gendry's neck stand on end. He had never heard such hate in anyone's voice ever before. And all of Arya's loathing was directed towards him at that moment. "You should have been dead, I should have let you die before. I should have left you behind in Harrenhal, and none of this would have happened..."

She couldn't be talking seriously... She couldn't, she wasn't. It was just grief speaking through her mouth, she wasn't herself... Arya wouldn't want him to die, would she? No matter how mad she was, she couldn't care that little about him!

"Arya, I never wanted any of this to happen" he swore, not knowing what else to say, but it wasn't enough. "I would have never done anything to hurt you..."

"_**BUT YOU DID!**_" she screamed. "You did, you always do something! First it was other things, and now this!"

"I know how you feel..."

"**_NO, YOU DON'T!_** You can't know how I feel! You never had a family! You never met your father, you don't remember your mother, you never had any siblings!"

"I had siblings..."

"It's not the same! You never knew they were your half brothers and sisters, none of you did! Blood doesn't make you family, Gendry, loyalty does!"

Then she turned around ran away, leaving the smithy in less time that it took him to realize that she was gone. He tried to go after her, and when he got out of the smithy he shouted her name.

"Arya! **_ARYA_**!"

She didn't listen to him, didn't look back. She was already too far away and disappeared from his sight, so he didn't follow her. He didn't think it was a good idea, Arya needed to be alone, she needed to put her thoughts in order, and let what he had told her sink in...

She will never forgive me... Damn it, she will never forgive me!

Gendry started cursing and went back inside into the smithy, where he punched a wall. He felt a throbbing pain in his hand after he did that, and bit his tongue when he refrained himself from screaming.

You did the right thing, the voice in his head said. You did the right thing. Secrets are no good for anyone.

Maybe he was right, but it didn't console him. There was only one thing of which he was almost completely sure, and it was that he had lost Arya forever.

* * *

She cried. She ran. She didn't even know where she was going. All she knew was that she wanted to get as far away from Gendry as possible.

She hated him. No, she didn't hate **_him_**. She hated that they had used him to do do such a horrible thing, to perform magic to... to kill her family. Robb and her mother were dead because the Red Woman had taken Gendry away, and later she had taken his blood.

It couldn't be possible. It couldn't be true. She didn't want it to be true. If they had used anyone else, maybe it wouldn't have hurt so much, but Gendry... Why Gendry?!

_Because he isn't lowborn. Because he is the son of a king._

In another occasion, she might have been happy for him, because at least now he knew where he came from. But she couldn't focus on anything else that wasn't the pain in her heart.

Yes, she didn't hate Gendry... But at that moment, she was furious with him. And the truth was she didn't want to ever see him again. Never. She just couldn't. Everytime that she did she would remember the horrible truth behind his abducting.

_I could ask Bran to kick him out..._

No, she couldn't. She wouldn't kick him out.

She was having trouble breathing, and her legs ached from running away from the smithy. She looked being her and was relieved to see that Gendry was nowhere to be found. She pressed her bak against the granite wall and started sobbing harder than she had done in the presence of the boy. Now that she was alone, there was nothing stopping her from letting her express her real feelings.

She slides down the wall until she was sitting on the cold hard floor, and she hugged her legs against her. She buried her face in her knees, which muffled the sound of her cries and sobs. She wanted to scream. And most of all, she wanted to kill the Red Woman just as much as she had wanted to kill Walder Frey and succeeded. Who was going to stop her from getting a full revenge?

She heard steps near where she was, and as the steps got closer, they also got quicker. Whoever those steps belonged to, he had for sure seen Arya and was hurrying to check on her. She was ready to dismiss whoever it was, she didn't want to be with anyone...

"Lovely girl?"

She raised her head from her knees and saw Jaqen kneeling in front of her. He looked worried. Arya thought that she probably looked hideous, with her red swollen and wet face covered in tears, and unable to stop sobbing...

Jaqen out a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Lovely girl, are you alright?"

She wanted to say yes, but she ended up telling the truth and shaking her head from side to side. Jaqen's expression darkened.

"Did the stupid fool mistreat you? Did the imbecile harm you?" he asked with an ice-cold voice. Again, Arya shook her head. "Is a girl hurt?"

"No..."

"Then why is a lovely girl crying?" he asked, more softly now. He wiped some tears away from her face with his finger.

"Ja-Jaqen... Do-does dark ma-magic e-exist...?" she asked between sobs. She was unable to properly pronunciation anything.

Jaqen frowned, confused by her question, but he answered. "Of course it does... A man has seen it many times. Why is a girl asking?"

Arya didn't respond, she couldn't. Her lips were trembling, and her shoulders were shaking too much. She tried to stop herself from moaning, but she couldn't. She had never felt more defenseless in her life.

Surprisingly, Jaqen leaned forward and took her in his arms, embracing and comforting her. Arya felt a bit safer... Just like she had when Gendry had pressed her against his chest. Despite of everything, for a moment the bull had made her feel warm, and safe, and loved.

Now it was Jaqen pulling her in his embrace, and she didn't push him away.

"Tell a man what he can do to make a lovely girl feel better, and a man will do it."

She had an answer for that request. It was the most difficult and perhaps stupid decision of her life, but she had to do it.

"Take me away" she sobbed, her voice half muffled against his chest. "Take me away from Winterfell. Take me away from here, far, very far away... I don't want to be here anymore."

At first here was silence, except from the noise that he cries made. She thought that Jaqen was going to tell her that she was crazy and what she was asking for was stupid, when sudden,y and without previous notice, Jaqen sneaked one arm behind her back and the other one behind her knees, and he stood up. Arya put her arms around his neck, and Jaqen started walking away while carrying her towards the castle's gates.

* * *

**I hate myself right now...**

**Also, I have to put this as a response to a guest review. I know perfectly fine the reason of the Red Wedding, but Gendry feels guilty. That's the thing in this fic, because I want it to be that way. And I have read the books! I just feel like following the show and Melissandre's logic. Period. So I hope that's clear, I know that the Red Wedding happened because Robb was an idiot and the Freys were little shits! Not because of the leeches... BUT GENDRY DOESN'T KNOW THAT! And now Arya is very mad, because he reminded her of the murder of her family, which is not cool!**

**:D**


	10. Chapter 10

**Hey guys! Thank you for your reviews! Almost all of them were great, except for one, but I don't mind that haha I'm really happy you liked chapter 9, so I tried to write this super fast during my breaks from studying. **

**I'm finding it very interesting that some people are like** "_please we want a Jaqen/Arya romance_**" or are asking for at least a kiss, and other people are like **_"I hate Jaqen, kill him."_ **There are hardcore Gendrya shippers, and also very strong Arya/Jaqen shippers out there, which I find very amusing! BUT I already know what I'm going to do with these three people, and there is only left the hope that you like it... There is still a lot more left in this story ^^****  
**

**Enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

"Gendry."

Gendry turned around as soon as he heard someone calling his name. He was surprised to see that it was Jon Targaryen, who was being accompanied by Sandor Clegane. Both lords walked towards him crossing the hallway with quick steps. Gendry wondered what they wanted from him, but judging by the expression on their faces it wasn't something very good... Maybe they had already found out what he had told Arya. It had been hours since that awful conversation between them happened, and he was really regretting it. He wasn't feeling any better than he did before, and Arya was more upset than she ever was.

However, Jon and Sandor weren't there to get an explanation of his conversation with Arya.

"Yes?"

"Have you seen Jaqen H'ghar anywhere?" Jon asked him. "We can't find him."

Gendry frowned. He had seen Jaqen H'ghar, earlier in Arya's chambers... But he wasn't about to mention that to Arya's family. He couldn't stop the look of infinite hatred that appeared in his face, but neither Jon nor Sandor seemed surprised about it. It was already well known in Winterfell that Gendry and the braavosi didn't get along very well.

He shook his head.

"No, I haven't seen him. Why?"

"He had some matters to discuss with him. We need someone with his skill" Sandor said.

Again, Gendry shook his head, slower this time.

"Well, no, I haven't seen him... I dint know where he might be either" that last part was true, at least.

"Oh, well, no one seems to have seen him all day..." Jon murmured. He and Sandor were about to turn around to leave when someone else made her appearance in the hallway.

"Has anyone seen my sister?" Sansa Stark asked. Her voice was covered with a layer of concern. She took her husband's hands when she reached him and she looked up at him in hopes that he would say yes, but he shook his head.

"No, little bird... I haven't seen the wolf-girl anywhere."

"Maybe she's in her chambers?" Jon suggested.

"No, I have looked for her everywhere. She's nowhere, it's like she has vanished."

That called Gendry's attention. Arya was always out there doing something, running around Winterfell getting into trouble, and there was always someone who had saw her somewhere. And now no one knew where she was? That was very unusual.

_She must be hiding,_ he thought. It was the most logical reason. _She was very upset after our conversation..._

He didn't mention any of that to any of the three lords and lady in front of him. The least that he needed at that moment was to talk about that. However, he was worried about Arya.

_Where are you, damn you!_

"Maybe she went out for a ride? She loves to do that" Sandor Clegane rasped. His wife shook her head again.

"I already asked the guards if they saw her, but they said that only one person crossed the gates. Jaqen H'ghar."

Jon almost gasped, Sandor grunted and Gendry paled. Sansa looked to be confused, and frowned when her husband started cursing and swearing.

"My love, what is wrong?"

"He took her! That fucking idiot took your sister away, that is what's wrong!" he exclaimed, infuriated. "_How dare he...?!_"

"Do you really think he abducted her?" Jon asked, apparently in a bit of shock, same as Sansa.

"What else if not?!"

"Why would he want to kidnap her?! They are friends, he has been protecting her for a long time!" Sansa exclaimed in disbelief. Sandor snorted.

"Well, that doesn't seem to be the case anymore, does it?" he snarled. "Jon, tell Bran to call on his guards, we need to leave now if you want to find your cousin."

Jon nodded, and turned around to do what the man had told him. Sandor stayed where he was to calm Sansa down; his young wife was very distressed by the thought that maybe her little sister was in danger. Gendry, on the other hand, was paralyzed and had no idea what to do. He knew that he had to tell them what had happened, but he was struggling with his own thoughts.

_What have I done?!_

"He didn't kidnap her..." he managed to say. He say it loud enough that Jon heard him and turned around and stared at him with suspicious eyes. Sansa and Sandor were also confused. "She went with him..."

"What are you saying, boy?"

"I'm saying that you are wrong!" he exclaimed. "He didn't kidnap her, she... She ran away with him!"

In less than a second he was slammed aainst the wall, with Jon furiously grabbing him by his tunic and choking him. Gendry didn't even have tine to react or fight back.

"What are you insinuating?! That my little sister is a common whore that runs away with any man?!" the former member of the Night's Watch yelled right in front of Gendry's face, infuriated.

"Jon, let him go!" Sansa commanded. "Let him go, you're choking him, Jon!"

Jon didn't listen to her, so Sandor had to step forward and grab Jon's shoulder and pull the man away from the smith. Once Gendry was free of Jon, he fell to the floor on his knees and took several long and deep breaths to get back the air that he had lost. Sandor was still grabbing Jon to stop him from attacking Gendry again.

"Jon, calm down!" Sansa exclaimed, and then she turned her attention to Gendry. He was already back on his feet, avoiding the eyes of the lord of Dragonstone. "Gendry, what did you mean? Why did you say that Arya had run away with Jaqen H'ghar?"

"Because she's mad at me" he confessed. He recieved three confused looks in return, so he had no choice but explain further what had happened. He told them everything that he had told Arya, how she had reacted, how she had run away and dissapeared from his sight. He was afraid that, after revealing to Sansa Stark and Jon Targaryen what he believed to be the reason that had led to the Red Wedding, no one would stop them from tearing him to pieces. It was their right, wasn't it? But that was not what happened after he finished giving his explanation.

Sansa and Jon remained silent and shocked. Gendry wasn't really able to read in their faces what they were thinking. Sandor, however, was getting red in the face and seemed to be about to explode at any second. Which he did.

"**_YOU BLOODY BUGGERING IDIOT!_**"

He had been execting another kind of reaction, another kind of insults, and possibly a punch or two in the face. He was grateful that that didn't happen, but he was confused when, instead of hate in everyone's eyes, he saw frustration and annoyance. Sansa rolled her eyes and sighed, Jon shook his head from side to side, and Sandor was shooting daggers at him through his grey eyes.

"What-?" Gendry mumbled.

"You really think that a bit of magic caused all that? That treason was planned months before it happened! It was planned before your Red Witch attempted to use her fire tricks to win the throne for Stannis!"

"How do you know that?" Gendry asked.

"When we defeated lord Bolton, we went to the Dreadfort" Sansa said, speaking more calmy than her husband. "There we found the messages that lord Tywin and lord Bolton had been exchanging, planning everything with lord Walder since Robb's wedding. It couldn't be prevented."

"The Red Wedding was caused in part by Robb's foolishness" Jon hissed. "And it was all the product of treason, not magic. And now Arya is the-gods-know-where with a dangerous man, and they have been gone for hours!"

"All because of your stupidity!" Sandor barked.

"_Enough!_" Sansa silenced both of them. "Arguing is not going to help us find my sister, we have to leave now before she's too far away and it's too late!"

Everyone agreed with her. When Sansa started walking down the hallway, the men went to follow her, but Sandor pointed a menacing finger towards Gendry, making him freeze were he was standing.

"You are staying here" Sandor rasped. "You've caused enough fucking trouble already."

Gendry closed his hands into fists, but there was no point in quarreling with a man twice as big and fierce than him, so he just lowered his head as a sign that he understood. Sandor walked away then, leaving him alone in the dark hallway. Gendry waited until he couldn't hear footsteps anymore.

"Like hell" he angrily muttered before walking away from that place too, going in the opposite direction as the others. He went out of the castle through a different gate, and stayed hidden where he could not be seen. He wasn't going to obey Sandor Clegane's order of staying there arms-crossed while Arya was out there.

He watched as Sansa Stark, Jon Targaryen and Sandor Clegane mounted their horses and left the castle walls followed by a dozen knights in a search party for Arya. Gendry waited five minutes after they left, to make sure they didn't return and were already far away. Then, when those five minutes passed, he sneaked out of his hissing place and towards the stables, where his horse was. He quickly out the saddle and reigns on the animal and mounted it, leaving the stables.

Then, suddenly and without warning, thunder struck the grey sky and it started raining furiously. Gendry was immediatly soaked from head to toe, and blinked several times when rain drops entered his eyes. Thunder struck again, making his horse uneasy, and he had to make a big effort to control the animal.

"Easy, boy!" he exclaimed when the horse raised itself on its back legs.

Around Gendry, many people that had been standing in the courtyard ran to the castle's interior to seek refuge from the heavy rain and the thunderstorm. The sky was darkening fast, iluminated every few seconds by the terrible lighning. Gendry didn't allow himself to be intimidated by the storm. He hadn't been caught in the middle of many powerful ones, but he had never feared them; they felt natural to him. The lighning, the rain, the strong wind...

However, a particularly loud thunder made him realize that he had no time to waste. Arya was out there in the middle if that storm, and he needed to bring her back home, to safety. He urged the horse to move, but the animal refused stubbornly. That was when Gendry realized that the horse was scared, but not by the lightning, but by the huge direwolf that was in front of him.

Gendry hadn't seen her before. Nymeria was just sitting there, without caring about the mud and the rain that soaked her fur. The direwolf was looking directly into Gendry's eyes, as if questioning him... Gendry dismounted his horse, and carefully, very carefully, he approached Arya's direwolf. He extended his hand towards the magestic animal (trying to shake away the fear of losing that hand) and got close enough to it to caress its head. Nymeria didn't growl or try to bite him; she trusted and accepted him. It made Gendry breathe more calmly.

"Nymeria" he whispered "Arya is out there, somewhere... She got very mad at me, you know? I need to find her, to tell her that I'm sorry... that she means more than anything in the world to me. I didn't realize it before, but I need to keep her safe."

He wasn't sure if the direwolf could understand him, but it always seemed to understand Arya, so it was worth the try. Gendry locked his blue eyes on Nymeria's intelligent wolf eyes. He had heard stories about the Starks, about how they could warg into their pets and see through their eyes. Was Arya seeing him right now through Nymeria's eyes? Gendry did not know. Slowly, he put his arm around the direwolf, almost hugging the creature. He rested his head on top of Nymeria's, and just then, he confessed his deepest secret, and also his biggest truth.

"I love her."

When he whispered those words, his voice was almost muted by the rain and the thunder, but he didn't care. What mattered was that he had finally said them out loud.

The direwolf made a strange whimpering sound in the back of its throat and moved its head. Gendry let go of Nymeria and looked at her in the eyes, and was amazed when he saw that the creature had understood him! What other explanation could there be for the way in which Nymeria's eyes were bright with comprehension?

"I need to find her, Nymeria" Gendry whispered with hope, caressing its wet fur. "You have to help me find her, and I swear that, unless she asks me to, I will _never_ let her go again. I promise."

Nymeria threw her head back suddenly and howled. It startled Gendry at first, but then he laughed. She stood back up on his feet and ran back to mount his horse again. He grabed the reigns and followed Nymeria when the direwolf started running towards the gates, which had been left open. He galloped away from Winterfell without looking back, and vowing to himself never to return until he had found Arya.

* * *

**I was planning on making this chapter waaaaay longer... but then I thought that maybe it was better if I stopped there. Ah, poor Gendry... **

**I hope you liked it! I'll try to post the next chapter tomorrow, now that my midterms are going to be finally over! I'll really try. **


	11. Chapter 11

**Hi! I planned to update earlier, but there wasn't time :S ok, so new chapter! **

**Quick note for people that say that they would be grossed out by a sexual relationship between Arya and Jaqen... I just have one thing to tell you: trust me, please. I know what I want to do with this story, and I hope that in the end everyone will be pleased. **

* * *

The storm didn't recede. Instead, it just kept growing stronger and fiercer. The sound of the wind was deafening, and rain fell with such strength that it had already flooded the ground beneath them. Sansa, Sandor and Jon had been searching for Arya for hours, riding south. The knights had broken into four groups, and each on of them went in different directions: north, south, west and east. Sansa, Sandor and Jon were riding south, and for now they had been unsuccessful in their mission. As minutes passed, things just seemed to be getting worse. They had no idea in which direction Jaqen and Arya had escaped, and the storm didn't allow them to see anything. They felt that they were riding towards a dead end.

"Arya!" Sansa was yelling, trying to be heard over the noise of the storm. "ARYA!"

"Aryaaa!" Jon called the girl, hoping to get a response.

"Fucking hells, wolf-bitch!" Sandor barked, feeling in an even darker mood as time passed and he was even more tired and annoyed. "When we find you, I'm gonna gut you for running away today!"

He didn't mean it, of course, but he was really annoyed.

They couldn't hear or see anything. They heard the tree branches cracking and they feared that one would fall on them. Sansa wasn't worried about herself, but Jon and Sandor did feel afraid for her.

"Sansa, we have to go back!" Jon shouted. "It's very dangerous!"

"No! We need to find Arya first!" she shouted back. "I'm not going back home without my sister!"

"I'll go to the seventh hell before I let you stay one more minute in this fucking storm and get killed, little bird!" Sandor yelled, angry. He wa really worried about his wife, and he didn't want any harm coming to her. As much as he wanted to save his gooodsister, he had to think about Sansa first. She was more important than anything else to him, and right now she was in danger. "We'll come back to look for her when the storm is gone, I promise!"

"By then, it might be too late!" Sansa replied, looking around desperate, but there was nothing there.

"Please, Sansa!" her husband begged. "The braavosi will be taking care of Arya! Now I need to take care of you!"

Sansa didn't say anything, she just sighed, and nodded, agreeing with Sandor to return to Winterfell for safety during the storm. Just as she was turning her horse around, lightning iluminated the sky, allowing to see a figure that passed galloping at great speed next to her, splashing water everywhere and following a great direwolf.

"Gendry!" Jon shouted at the young man, recognizing him as he galoped away.

"Where are you going, you son of a whore?!"

Gendry ignored them. He just kept urging his horse to run faster behind Nymeria, who was leading him towards the south. He was completelly ignoring the raging storm around him, he wasn't frightened by the powerful thunder omnirange the furious wind and rain that blinded him. The only thought was that Arya was out there, and she could get hurt in this weather. In spirit, she was incredibly tough, but she was also a fragile little being that could not stand against a storm like that. The sooner that Gendry found her, the safer that she would be. He was worried sick about her.

_Where are you, damn you Arya, where are you...?_ Gendry muttered in his mind. He couldn't see a thing around him but he could see Nymeria, and he was just following her without questioning the direwolf. He had long ago left behind Sansa, Jon and Sandor, and now he was almost completelly alone, save for Nymeria.

"Arya!" he shouted, hoping to be heard over the wind. "ARYA!"

The wasn't a reply. How far away was she? Had Jaqen H'ghar hurried a lot to get both him and the young lady as far away from Winterfell as possible? Where they still alive? Gendry didn't even want to consider the alternative to the last question. He was going to find Arya, he was going to find her...

"**_ARYA!_**" his voice got lost in the storm.

* * *

Far away from there, Arya Stark rode in the back of a horse with her arms richly wrapped around Jaqen H'ghar, trying very hard not to fall off. She wasn't afraid of the storm, or at least not a lot, but she had kept her eyes shut since the lightning strted to get more intense, and flinched at the sound of the thunder that made her feel like her ears were going to explode. She pressed the side of her face against Jaqen's back, who hadn't said anything since they left Winterfell. Was he regretting leaving the castle and adventuring into that dangerous weather?

As if he had read her mind, Jaqen suddenly spoke.

"Are you alright, lovely girl?!" he asked, loud enough to be heard over the storm.

"Yes!" she said without hesitation. She wasn't afraid, she really wasn't.

"You haven't changed your mind?!" he kept asking.

"Do you want to go back?" she shot back. Maybe he was really regretting it after all.

"No!" he said then. "A man will only do what a girl tells him to do! What do you want me to do, lovely girl?!"

"I don't want to go back" she whispered. Somehow, he heard her, and he kept galloping.

She wasn't sure where he was taking her. She knew that they were going south, but they hadn't taken the kingsroad. No one would have it easy to find them that way. They were galloping through the woods, and the trees were shaking around them, moved by the wind and whipped by the rain. Arya was a little afraid that one of the trees might fall on them a crush them. She had seen many trees that had been torn out of the ground by strong winds like those. She held on tigger to Jaqen, amost crushing the breath out of him.

"Don't be afraid!" she heard Jaqen exclaim. His voice seemed to come from far, far away... "A girl must not be afraid while a man is with her!"

She knew that. Nothing was going to happen to her. So she relaxed, and just let herself be carried away on top of the galloping horse through the storm and the woods. She didn't really know how much time had passed, or how far away they were. Had people already realized that she was gone? Were they looking for her? Was Gendry looking for her?

She surprised herself with that last question. What dis she care if Gendry was looking for her? She hoped he wasn't, and if he was, then she disn't want him to ever find her. She didn't want to ever see him again. She regreted not having brought Needle with her, so that she could stick the stupid bull with the pointy end if she ever saw him again.

Thunder struck right in the sky over their heads, illuminating everything for moment in a terrifying way. The sound was deafening. Arya screamed, actually frightened this time, and Jaqen's horse stopped galloping and raised itself over it's back legs, throwing Arya off it's back and into the wet and muddy ground. She felt the air leaving her lungs when her back hit the ground, and the mud stained her clothes and hair, but the heavy rain washed it away when she stood up. Jaqen managed to control his horse quickly, and he extended his hand towards Arya to help her up again. However, before she could even hold his hand, yet another thunder struck again, and this time it hit one of the trees in front of them. The tree was immediatly set on fire and it broke in half, falling in front of them, bloking the path.

Jaqen's horse went crazy with fear. Jaqen held the reigns tightly, trying to control the animal and calm it down.

"Bloody beast!" Arya heard the man muttering before he fell off the horse as well. The animal acted like if it was possessed, and ran off in fear of the fire as soon as it found itself free of its master.

Arya though that maybe Jaqen would run after the horse, but he didn't; he just let the animal go and run for it's life. Jaqen closed the distance between himself and Arya with two quick steps, and grabbed her arm.

"Come, lovely girl. It's not safe here" because he was closer to her now than he had been before, he didn't need to shout anymore, and Arya heard him perfectly fine.

She looked up at the dark sky for a second before following Jaqen, who was walking away from the fallen tree that had been set on fire. Arya still had no idea where they were heading, but she knew that being out there in the open right at that moment was extremelly dangerous. They needed to find a safe place to hide from the storm, and quickly, before another tree fell on them or lightning hit them. Arya didn't want either one of those two things to happen to them.

"Where are we going?!" she asked, trying to keep up with Jaqen. The man was still holding her arm and was almost running, and he was too fast. "We could look for an inn!"

"The closest inn is in the kingsroad, lovely girl, and we have kept a big distance from it. We will be dead before reaching it in this weather."

"But we don't know where we are going?!" she exclaimed. She didn't want to panic, but she was starting to.

Jaqen turned his head around to look at her. The rain had soaked him too from head to toe and his hair was all over his face. His eyes were dead serious, but a small smile appeared on his mouth.

"A man does" he said then, urging Arya to move faster. She did, and didn't ask any more questions. She just followed him, and before long, they found a little cave big enough to fit them both in if they knelt down on the ground. It wasn't exactly a cave, but more like a hole in the ground made by rocks, dirt and lifted tree roots. However, it was enough for them, as long as it kept them from further soaking under the rain.

"There" Jaqen said, pointing with his finger to the small refuge. Both him and Arya immediatly ran towards the place, hurrying inside it. It was a relief to stop being constantly hit by the heavy rain drops.

It wasn't very comfortable inside that place. It was terribly small, and Jaqen had to kneel and bend his head down a little to completely fit inside it. Arya was smaller than him and didn't have to bend her head, but she also had to kneel down. Both their backs hit the wall made of dirt, rocks and roots, so they couldn't get farder away from the rain that fell down in the open, but at least the place was wide enough from side to side so that they could lay down to rest. They didn't do that yet, however. Jaqen's eyes were moving around, trying to find any dangers that could be hissing out in the open in front of them. Arya was at his side, hugging herself tightly. She was freezing and couldn't stop trembling. She hadn't bothered to grab more clothes when she ran away from Winterfell, and she just had a tunic, breeches and a pair of boots on, nothing more. Jaqen seemed to notice that when he heard her teeth were chattering.

He removed the coat he was wearing and threw it over her shoulders. Arya felt instantly better and warmer. It might be because the coat still had Jaqen's warmth on.

"Thank you" she murmured. She noticed then that Jaqen was wearing only a tunic too. "But now you are going to be cold..."

Jaqen shook his head. "A man will be fine. But a man wants to know what happened to the lovely girl back in the castle. What did the boy do?"

Arya didn't want to talk about it, but she figured that since Jaqen hadn't questioned her before and was stuck in the middle of that terrible storm because of her, because she had asked him to take her away. She knew that he deserved an explanation, but she couldn't bring herself to talk about it yet. She was still in shock.

Jaqen understood, and he sighed.

"It's alright... You can tell a man in the morrow, when things are better" he said, gently placing his hand on her shoulder in a comforting way.

"I'll tell you" she whispered. "I just need to rest."

"A man knows. Sleep, girl. A man will keep watch for the night."

"Dont let them find me" she quickly said. He eyed her suspiciously.

"A man won't let that happen" he said, and Arya knew that he wasn't lying. He had promised her that he would do whatever she wanted, and she knew perfectly fine that he always kept his promises. "But if you change your mind, a girl needs only ask..."

"I want to leave Westeros" she suddenly blurted out.

She disn't know where that had come from. She had just said it. She disn't know why she had said it, but she knew that at that moment that was the only thing that she wanted.

Jaqen looked to be alarmed. He hadn't expected her to say that, and now he was frowning. He stared down at her trying to find out what was on her mind, but he couldn't. He gave up, and he sighed yet another time.

"As a man said before, a girl need only ask. A girl commands, and a man will obey."

_Good_, she thought. She felt calmer then, knowing that they would really go very far away, as promised. She didn't really want to leave Winterfell, she didn't want to leave her family. But her almost irrational mind could only think of Gendry, and she wanted to be as far away from Gendry as possible. Going away to Essos would fix that.

It started raining even more heavily that before. The noise it made was extremelly loud, and the rain was coming inside their little refuge, keeping them from being dry and warm.

A cold chill ran through Arya's body, and she shivered. The coat wasn't enough to keep her warm; if she continued like that, and soaked as she was, the. She was going to catch a cold and that would be bad.

Suddenly, Jaqen's arms were around her, and his hands were rubbing her back to keep her warm. Arya silently thanked the gesture, and rested her head against Jaqen's chest. In a minute or so, she was warm enough to stop shivering, though she was still soaked to her bones.

"Thanks" she whispered.

"Is that better?" Jaqen asked. Arya nodded, and pulled away from him. He let his hands go of her.

There was an awkward silence between them then. The only thing that could be heard was the wind, the rain, the movement of the trees... Arya stared straight into Jaqen's eyes. She felt something in the pit of her stomach then, and she didn't know whether to move her sight away from him or not.

She did look away, when an specially powerful lightning illuminated everything, making everything as light as in plain daylight. Both Arya and Jaqen took their eyes away from each other and looked outside from their small refuge for a second, observing everything while it was still illuminated. A few seconds later, when it was dark again, they heard the thunder. They looked into each other's eyes then, just for an instant...

She didn't know how or why she did it. She just knew that suddenly, she was kissing Jaqen.

She hadn't even planned it, and she was just as surprised as he was. She had felt the impulse, and she had followed her instinct. She pressed her mouth against Jaqen's, feeling the soft touch of his lips against hers. It was a very strange feeling, yet pleasant. Her lips were pressed hard against his, and it was an impulsive kiss, yet it was innocent. Jaqen seemed to be startled at first, completely taken by surprise, but he didn't pull away. He just stood there until Arya separated her mouth from his and pulled back.

She stared directly into his eyes while she felt that she was blushing furiously. She was afraid that what she had just done was a stupid, foolish thing. Why had she kissed him! Obviously Jaqen couldn't like her... Surely she was mad at her now, and he would leave her alone in the middle of that awful storm...

Another lightning and thunder. Before it was over, Arya and Jaqen found themselves in each other's arms, kissing passionately. Arya was kissing him, and he was kissing her back!

Arya couldn't think of anything more than what was happening right there at that moment. There wasn't anything soft or innocent of gentle about that kiss; that kiss was fierce and desperate. Jaqen's arms held her tightly, and she moaned against his mouth. Her lips parted, and the kiss deepened, becoming something wet and exciting. Their tongues danced in their mouths, exploring each other. Jaqen buried his fingers in Arya's hair, while her arms were around his neck, and she pressed herself against him. All that was something completely new and unexplored for her. She felt an infinity of sensations exploding deep within herself, making her skin burn with... desire?

Arya leaned more against Jaqen, making the kiss harder, and the man feverishly kissed her in return. Arya heard him moaning in the back of his throat... No, she didn't hear him, she felt him.

Then the kiss became softer, and as quickly as it had started it ended. Arya and Jaqen separated from each other and they stared into their eyes. Arya's face was burning, and Jaqen was panting. It was so strange for Arya to see the man like that... he was always so calm in every ocassion, yet here he looked like he had no idea how to act, or what to say, or even could put his thought in order. Arya felt the same way. Her lips were sore and swollen (just like Jaqen's!) and she felt like there was a hurricane inside her. What had just happened? Why had it happened?

"Jaqen..." she started saying, but he gently hushed her. His hands were still on her hip and tangled in her long wet locks, were they had stayed during the whole time they were kissing, instead of roaming around her body like she knew that other men did to women. She realized that Jaqen had been very... respectful. She didn't exactly know what to make of it, but she felt comfortable.

Jaqen took his hand away from her hair and caressed her face with his fingers. It was strange that an assassin's hand could have such a gentle touch. He was still breathing hard, but he had manage to regain a but of control over himself.

"A girl has had a long day" he said then. "A girl should rest."

"But-"

"Go to sleep" he insisted, but not harshly. "A girl needs all her strenght for tomorrow."

"And what about you?" she asked.

"A man will keep watch, to make sure no enemies approach a girl in the dark" he said with a small smile on his lips. He leaned forward and Arya thought that he was goig to kiss her again, but he didn't, not exactly. He placed a soft kiss on her hair, and then he took his hands away from her hip and face.

Arya laid down on the cold and wet ground. It wasn't very comfortable, but she had gotten used to sleeping in worse places during the war. Besides, she was incredibly tired, and she just wanted some sleep. Too many things had happened that day. She closed her eyes, and she heard Jaqen making himself more comfortable in the little space that they were in, sitting in a proper position to keep watch. Then, with the sound of the outing rain and the now more distant thunder, Arya slowly fell into a deep sleep full of dreams.

Gendry was in every single one of them.

* * *

**My Gendrya feels are hurting!**

**People who wanted the kiss (me included, let's admit it) you got it! People who would be grossed out by Jaqen/Arya... That wasn't sexual! So everybody happy!**

**Now Gendry on the rescue!**


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